On 21-22 September 2018, the International Seminar on Quality Assurance in Nursing Education was held at the Higher Medical College of the Health Department of Almaty with the participation of 31 delegates from 20 medical education organizations (medical colleges, higher medical colleges, medical universities, HEIs) of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The seminar was organized by the Eurasian Сentre for Accreditation and Quality Assurance in Higher Education and Health сare in the framework of the Plan for the implementation of the goals and objectives of the Memorandum of Cooperation with the JAMK University of Applied Sciences (Finland), which is the partner of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Kazakhstan in the program of modernization of nursing education in Kazakhstan. The Speaker of the seminar was Johanna Heikkilä who is the Senior Advisor to the President of the JAMK University of Applied Sciences, the Project Manager of the “Modernization of Nursing Education”, the Coordinator and Scientific Supervisor of the CBHE (“Capacity Building in the Field of Higher Education”) for the ProInCa project (“Promoting the innovative potential of higher education in the field of nursing”).

The 2-day seminar covered the International Requirements for Nursing Education (EQF, EU 55/2013, WHO2020, Tuning, Bologna), Quality Assurance in educational institutions (ENQA standards, WHO 2009, student engagement), Support of the World Bank project and the ProInCa Erasmus + CBHA project in the development of nursing in Kazakhstan, the assessment process and the criteria for the transformation of higher medical schools, data on the introduction of a new competency-based learning approach to training in nursing. The participants were also provided with examples of self-assessment of educational institutions in the framework of accreditation in Finland and stages of expert work.

The criteria and accreditation procedure in nursing education developed by the ECAQA were delivered by the ECAQA Director-General Saule Sarsenbayeva.