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Higher education in Belgium is organized by the two main communities: the Flemish and the French Community. German speakers typically enroll in institutions in the French community or in Germany.
In Belgium anybody with a qualifying diploma of secondary education is free to enroll at any institute of higher education of their choice. The 3 major exceptions to this rule are those wanting to pursue a degree in:
- Medicine/Dentistry
They have to take an entrance exam organized by the government. This is only held in Flanders, not anymore in all French community universities. - Arts
Entrance exams are mainly of a practical nature and are organized by the colleges individually - Engineering Sciences
Leading to the degree of Master of Science (Burgerlijk ingenieur, Ingénieur Civil), this is still organized in the French community.
Since the adoption of the Bologna Process, the higher education in Belgium follows the Bachelor/ Master system:
- Bachelor's Degree:
3 years. A distinction is to be made between the professional bachelor, which replaces the former graduate degree and which has a finality, and the academic bachelor which replaces the candidate degree and which gives acces to master's studies - Master's degree:
1 or 2 years
In Belgium, both Universities and University Colleges are allowed to organize Bachelor and Master classes, either professional or academical. After obtaining a Master's degree, they can pursue research projects leading to a doctorate degree. PhD's are only awarded by Universities.
Nursing in Belgium
Belgium is a federal State. This means that the competence to regulate nursing is divided.
- From an educational point of view the competent authorities in charge of education are ministers for the Flemish, the French, and the German communities.
- The scope of professional activity and the question of professional titles is however a federal competence and is dealt with by the relevant Federal Ministries.
In fact nurse training has begun to vary between the Flemish and the French communities, with the German community largely following the French model. In Brussels nurses follow the model of training according to the language of the institution which they join for their training. After a general introduction nurse training will be explained by region.
Types of Nurse in Belgium
There are two prime categories of nurse in Belgium: the Bachelor nurse and the certificate nurse. The certificate nurse undertakes practical nurse training in the fourth grade of secondary school after completing the normal three grades (3x2 years) secondary school studies. The training is largely based on practice and apprenticeship. This category of nurse was being considered for phasing out, but change has been rejected. This type of nurse is not considered as a specialist nurse (in terms of title) but may in their second and third years of training follow a "hospital" (i.e. general nurse) route or train as a "psychiatric" nurse (infirmier en santé mentale / verpleegkunde in de geestelijke gezondheidszorg).
The Bachelor nurse now varies between the two main Belgian communities and is described more fully below. A common feature is that their education is at a higher level (higher technical education) and admission criteria are similar to that used for entry into university.
The split into these two main types of nurse is not reflected in the rules defining the scope of activity of nursing which makes no distinctions between types of nurse and the functions that they can perform. All nurses can undertake specialized and complementary training as:- Cancer; Imaging and radiotherapy; Operating theatre; palliative care; endoscopy; dialysis; radiotherapy; or health education nurses As regards "Specialist nurses", the formal professional titles were only created in 1994 (details below), and are now at post-basic level. However prior to the 1994 change in rules there was training in a series of specialist areas (for example in pediatric nurse, psychiatric nurse, social nurse). Some of the schools, especially in Flanders allowed direct entry into this type of course. As there was no rule against using a specialist title, nurses could do so. When the new (1994) rule change is fully implemented such nurses with appropriate experience are likely to have their acquired rights recognized. It is not known when these rules will be introduced.
The Belgian Federal law sets out the titles of nurse specialists in Belgium
- Pediatric nurse (infirmier gradué en pédiatrie / Bachelor in de verpleegkunde, optie pediatrie)
- Mental health and psychiatry (infirmier gradué en santé mentale
/ bachelor in de verpleegkunde, optie psychiatrie)
- Public Health (infirmier gradué en santé communautaire /Bachelor in de verpleegkunde, optie sociale gezondheidszorg)
- Intensive care and emergency care (infirmier gradué en soins intensifs et d'urgence / Bachelor in de verpleegkunde in intensieve zorg en spoedgevallenzorg)
- Geriatric nursing (infirmier gradué en gériatries / bachelor in de verpleegkunde, optie geriatrie) G
The nursing specialties above are set out in the Belgian Federal Law.
After getting a degree of Bachelor in Nursing: the nurses can obtain a degree of Bachelor after Bachelor in Nursing (BANABA) in intensive care and emergency, oncology, neonatology, etc.
And finally there is also a Master of Sciences in Nursing, where you can get an academically degree. Before you enter the master education, you have to follow 60ECTS of a kind of bridge course with the special focus on science research. Afterwards you have to follow 60 ECTS of Master. Finally you can get a doctoral degree.
Flemish Community
The Flemish Community regulates nurse training with a lighter touch than the French Community. The Nursing university colleges themselves are left very much in charge of training. They are bound by the general law to take account of laws, decrees and the EC directive.Within this overall framework they can control their curriculum individually.
The certificate nurse (infirmier) undertakes practical nursing training. The course lasts three years with a common first year and the second year being in either psychiatric or hospital nursing as is the third year. Until 1994 those who have completed this programme were awarded a brevet but since 1994 the award have been a diploma.
The nurses of Bachelor degree (infirmiers gradués) are graduates from the univeristy colleges (infirmiers gradués). These nurses have undertaken professional nursing education which is a three year course resulting in a diploma. Within their diploma nurses may choose for some options (paediatric, psychiatric, community health, hospital or geriatric nursing) in their third year of study. They are awarded a diploma on the completion of their studies and are considered to be "general" nurses.
French and German communities
In these communities the practical training nurse also exists but is awarded a brevet (rather than diploma). The training is at the same level as for the Flemish Community with the same outcomes
Infirmier gradué
The higher level nursing education is undertaken in university colleges and has a common first year between nursing and midwifery. After three years of nursing training the students become nurses (infirmiers gradués). After this stage they are entitled to undertake a fourth year post-basic specialization training where a legal title of specialist nurse is in principle available
The infirmier gradué can also undertake complementary training as a nurse leader (chef de service); in charge of continuing education (chargé de laformation continue); director of a nursing department (directeur dudépartment infirmier); hospital hygiene (en hygiène hospitalière); qualityassurance of health care (assurance de la qualité des soins).The chef de service is awarded a diploma on completion of the studies. The other studies lead to "qualifications professionnelles particulières. The reader will have noted that there are more specialties in the Belgian French rules than are catered to by the Belgian Federal Law. The reason for the divergence is set out in the Introduction to this chapter, and primarily is because of the split of competence between the Government (with competence over registration and titles) and the Communities who have competence regarding training.
Regulated activity
The practice of nursing is a monopoly activity. Article 21 indicates that no-one may practice as a nurse unless they have the necessary diploma or title of Bachelor degree in nursing (infirmier gradué) or certificate (brevet). Articles 21 octies and novies reinforce this monopoly by disallowing a nursing from helping any non-nurse perform any nursing acts or attributing the nursing title to any non-nurse. This causes difficulties for care assistants and the like who are not nurses. It would seem that their actions are illegal as a matter of Belgian law according to the recent report of the National Council for Nursing.
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