Nurse Education in Cameroon - A Grounded Analysis on Seizing the Opportunity of the Moment

Nurse education has moved from apprenticeship models to advanced competency-based curricular in higher education. The bachelor’s degree is already becoming the entry level into professional practice. Postgraduate programmes have been developed and there is growing autonomous regulation. Nursing in Cameroon has equally been going through its own evolution from the colonial era to present day Cameroon. However, the absence of empirical data makes it difficult to ascertain the nature of this evolution. The aim of this study was to critically analyse the basis of/and ideological positions of key stakeholders in relation to nurse education in Cameroon. Charmaz’s (2006) constructivist interpretation of grounded theory was used to analyse data from official texts and in-depth interviews of nurses involved with education policy. Data sources were initially selected using purposive sampling and subsequently through theoretical sampling. The results showed that nurse education in Cameroon has been influenced by a series of interacting factors. These included categories that occurred at particular points in time though their influence persist: multiple births and formation; reactive growth and development; liberalisation and nurse education expansion; turf wars and intra-professional conflicts. These were found to interact with fluid categories that represent dynamic current movements whose direction are unclear: change mode; moving nursing to higher education; harmonisation of nursing programmes; and professionalizing nursing. A grounded interpretation of these categories and their relationships led to the development of a theory on seizing the opportunity of the moment. The theory proposes a harmonisation project to move nurse education from a scenario where nursing has no control over the education system to one where nursing seizes control of the nurse education process. The argument is made that turf wars and intra-professional conflicts have the potential to pull nursing education from the unanticipated opportunities suddenly generated by government’s policy of liberalization. The current conjunction of the desire for change among nurses and the unplanned inclusion of nurse education in higher education provide the unique opportunity for harmonization if harnessed to advance nurse education and professionalise nursing. The study concludes that nurse leaders must create a platform that unites nurses towards the adoption and implementation of the harmonisation project or risk another generation of erratic growth and development.