International Institute of Health Science (IIHS), Sri Lanka’s premier and leading healthcare education institute renowned for the high quality education provided for nurses in Sri Lanka has once again taken nursing education to a new realm by offering a Doctor of Nursing to help further to address the health care training needs of the nurses of South Asia.

The Doctor of Nursing degree programme is a 4 year coursework and dissertation-based international program offered by the Open University Malaysia (OUM) and is ideal for nurses in administrative and educational roles. The entire programme will be offered via the distance and open learning model at IIHS in Sri Lanka and will be open for all those who meet the entry qualifications of a Master’s degree or have obtained BSc/Bachelors/MBBS from recognized local and international universities. The delivery and assessment for the Doctor of Nursing program is through a hybrid program where face to face sessions are augmented through the award-winning Learner Management System of IIHS.

Dr. Kithsiri Edirisinghe, CEO & Co-Founder IIHS commented, “We are truly pleased to be able to offer this new programme which will elevate the standards of nurses in Sri Lanka even further. We are passionately driven to provide our nurses with the best programmes to help them enrich their knowledge and garner the expertise and professionalism they need to match international standards. Our greater vision is to transform South Asian regional students to world class healthcare professionals and align with the government initiative of making Sri Lanka a knowledge hub giving opportunities to students across globe to access a quality health care qualification.”

IIHS will provide value additions to the programme by providing the necessary academic and technical support. Furthermore, IIHS will play a supervisory role in monitoring the programme backed by the support of the international panel of academics from OUM who will continue to give the necessary guidance to the students digitally.

In June 2020 a scholarship worth a total of Rs. 11 million was awarded to 11 well deserving nursing leaders in the state sector of Sri Lanka to help motivate and inspire them to take nursing to a new tier. The programme will be delivered by the well-established and qualified department of nursing equipped with local and foreign lecturers to celebrate the year of the nurse.

The Open University Malaysia is a UGC approved university and a member of the Commonwealth Association of Universities and International Associations of Universities. IIHS has had a 10 year partnership with OUM and currently offer the Bachelors in Nursing and Masters in Nursing degree where more than 800 graduates have been produced.