MPs approve plan for nursing college at Bahrain Polytechnic
Parliament's services committee approved a proposal to establish a college of nursing and midwifery within Bahrain Polytechnic. This aims to increase the number of qualified Bahraini staff in the health sector and reduce reliance on foreign labour.
The proposal, submitted by MP Jaleela Al Sayed alongside four other members, calls for a specialised college offering academic and applied programmes in nursing, midwifery and community care, helping meet rising demand for Bahraini talent in healthcare.
The committee said the proposal comes against a shortage of qualified national staff compared with growing needs, compounded by the absence of an independent nursing college able to develop its own programmes and curricula in step with changes in healthcare and the demands of the labour market.
The Bahrain Nursing and Midwifery Society backed expanding capacity in existing nursing programmes, calling for new or expanded higher diploma, master's and doctoral programmes to prepare specialists for the sector. The society said the need extends well beyond general nursing into intensive care, emergency, dialysis, community health, midwifery, paediatric and neonatal nursing, oncology, mental health, and nursing management and education.
Some of those programmes already exist, the society noted, but the number of places allocated to them does not match demand. It stressed that any increase in graduate numbers must be tied to actual job openings in the health sector.
The proposal drew on local and international reports pointing to rising demand for nursing staff. Tamkeen's 2024 healthcare sector skills report listed nursing among the essential occupations required in Bahrain. A Gulf study cited in the proposal put average nursing density across GCC states at 6.5 nurses per 1,000 people, with shortages persisting in several specialisms, chiefly intensive care and emergency.
The society sounded a note of caution, however, warning that increasing student places without expanding clinical training opportunities could put additional pressure on hospitals, particularly emergency and intensive care departments.
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