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Nazarene College of Nursing - PNG
The Nazarene College of Nursing in Papua New Guinea maintains a government approved and a well-developed programme and curriculum specifically designed to meet the needs of nurses training for positions in private, government, and public medical institutions in Melanesia.  NCON is recognized by the General Board of the Church of the Nazarene as an institution to offer nursing diplomas and has continued to file annual reports of educational standards, plan of organization, and financial statements to the Asia-Pacific Regional education coordinator and the International Board of Education (IBOE) regarding the progress and standing of NCON.

The administration and staff appreciate the opportunity to use this self-study as a means of discovering and evaluating our own strengths and challenges.  The writing of the report has allowed us to review our strengths and challenges in establishing our strategic plan for the next five years.  The critical element of this review will demonstrate our faithfulness to the church and institutional mission, as well as our commitment to academic excellence.  We are grateful for the assistance of the administrators and tutors in writing this report, helping to assure that the Nazarene College of Nursing is maintaining credibility in its reporting.

This self-study report will discuss our strengths and challenges using the four benchmarks recommended by the International Board of Education (IBOE):

• The organization has a clear and focused mission appropriate to an institution

of the Church of the Nazarene and the organization is structured to fulfill that
mission.

• The organization has systematic means for evaluating and improving the

organization, consistent with its mission and vision.

• The organization assures and advances student learning through on-going

programmes to assess student learning, to recognize and promote teaching
effectiveness, and to evaluate the currency and relevance of its curricular
offerings.

• The organization strategically plans for holistic faculty and staff development.

Guided by its mission, the institution motivates its constituents, particularly its
faculty and students, to engage in a life of learning by providing an
environment that supports spiritual, academic, social and physical development
of the individual and community.

History of nazarene college of nursing

The Nazarene College of Nursing exists to prepare young men and women to serve as members of the health ministries of the Church of the Nazarene in Papua New Guinea and in Melanesia.  Training health workers of various levels has been a vital part of the health care programme from the very beginning of the missionary work in Papua New Guinea.  At first, missionaries dispensed medicine from their homes, then finally they were able to open a clinic in Kudjip.  A course for training Aid Post Orderlies (APO) began soon after to help in the health work at Kudjip and other clinics as they were established. 

Hygiene, nutrition, prevention of disease, childbirth, maternal child health, malaria, wounds from tribal fighting, and other physical and health concerns were apparent to the missionaries in the early days of the work of the Church of the Nazarene.  New Guinea’s medical needs were also very apparent to the general church, and in 1964 the Nazarene World Missionary Society (now Nazarene Missions International) had a special 50th anniversary offering in all Nazarene churches around the world to construct a hospital in New Guinea.  The opening of the 96-bed hospital and the continuation of the Maternal Child Health clinics with only one doctor and three nurses on staff emphasized the immediate need of trained medical help. 

An attempt to begin training local nurses failed initially, and the auxiliary work was done by untrained aids and Aid Post Orderlies-in-training.  Even before the hospital opened in 1967, a school for Aid Post Orderlies (APO) had been started and continued until 1975 when the course was discontinued.  Following that programme in 1971, a one-year Nurse Aid training programme with seven girls was begun and operated successfully until 1982 when the training for nurse aids for Highlands Province was moved to Tinsley School of Nursing, Baiyer River.  Before this move, nearly 100 nurse aids were trained in its 11 years of operation.  The missionaries assured the church that these workers had received not only academic instruction, but spiritual counsel as well.

In June 1972 the Nazarene School of Nursing began a programme for Enrolled Nurses.  There were 12 students in the first class, 4 of whom graduated in August of 1975 and immediately joined the staff of the Nazarene hospital.  The first graduates of the Nazarene School of Nursing were Enrolled Hospital Nurses.  The original School of Nursing building included one classroom and a girls' dorm.  All the tutors shared one large room as their office.