By: Djenta Saha
All diploma nursing programs in Indonesia are based on a national nursing curriculum for diploma nursing courses. The content of the diploma nursing curriculum is 80 per cent of the national content, which means that all nursing schools in Indonesia provide the same content and 20 per cent of local content so each school can provide different content depending on local/regional needs. The diploma nursing curriculum document states that the curriculum is guided by the goal of national education, rules, norms and ethics of science, community needs, and considerations of personal interest, capability and initiative (Sister School project, 2002). The diploma nursing curriculum is used for all nursing education in Indonesia, including Central Kalimantan. The aim of the specification is to standardise nursing education to a certain level throughout the country (Pusdiknakes, 2002, p.1).
The diploma nursing curriculum is a very specific document that describes the number of credit points, subjects, objectives and structure of the courses. This curriculum is six semesters in length and consists of 40 subjects. There are no elective subjects and every semester has a different number of subjects. The first
semester comprises nine subjects, the second semester consists of nine subjects, the third semester comprises five subjects, the fourth semester contains five subjects, the fifth semester comprises seven subjects, and the last semester consists of five subjects (Pusdiknakes, 2002). The subjects in the nursing curriculum can be divided into three major areas: supporting theoretical science, professional nursing subjects,
and clinical nursing subjects (Sister School Project, 2002). Each nursing subject is divided into a number of topics and skills to learn. The semesters are 20 weeks in duration, including the examination period. The
semesters are structured such that the first two semesters have a higher theoretical load than clinical load, with students spending about six to eight hours a week in clinical learning. However, much of the clinical learning in these two semesters occurs in the laboratory. In the third and fourth semester the clinical load begins to increase (20 hours theory compared to 15 hours of clinical learning) and by the fifth and sixth semester the majority of the student activity is clinical learning (25 hours a week) compared to 10–12 hours of theory per week. Much of the theory is given prior to the clinical component.
Source: Djenta Saha