Nursing Education in Cambodia

Tun Sreypeov (Ms.), RN, MSN.

Head of Nursing,

University of Puthisastra School of Nursing

H/P: (855) 92 970 165/10 244 010

Email: Tun Sreypeov, RN, MSN

February 10, 2024

Nursing education in Cambodia has a long story. Before Pol Pot regime from 1970 to 1979, Cambodia had proper associate and primary training programs for nursing education. Students were taught in French and Khmer language. All of the medical education, including nursing were influenced by French colonization and also traditional Khmer medicine.

In 1979 after the Khmer Rouge, there were no nursing schools left in the country. Only five medical doctors were alive in Cambodia after the genocide regime. Nursing training programs were run by the United Nations at the refugee camp sites on the border of Cambodia and Thailand. The training was 1 year, or 2 years and divided into smaller modules.

Later in 1980, the associate degree in nursing was established, it was the highest nursing degree in the country at the time. Now nursing education has further developed and Cambodia has an associate degree in nursing RN program (a 3-year program), and a bachelor’s in nursing degree (a 4-year program).

The associate degree and bachelor’s degree in nursing curriculums have recently been updated to include skills, critical thinking, evidence-based practice as well as research.

The associate degree in nursing will take a student 3 years to finish with 104 credits. The bachelor’s degree in nursing will take a student 4 years to finish with 141 credits.

Students in Cambodia have to study very hard, which is not different from other countries around the world. Each student who graduates provides support to the health care system. Cambodia has a severe shortage of nurses with a ratio of 9.5 nurses per 10, 000 people according to the World Bank in 2021, compared to a ratio is 19 nurses per 10, 000 population in other low and low-middle income countries.

To build the health care system, we need more nurses! Currently, the patient to nurse ratio in public hospitals is 15 to 25 patients per nurse. Nurses work more than 100 hours per week. We can better improve the patients’ lives when we have enough well-prepared nurses to care for them.

We rotate our students to public hospitals so that they can practice with real patients under supervision of clinical preceptor. There are only 3 national hospitals that we can send our students in Phnom Penh, one pediatric and two adult hospitals.

Unfortunately, nursing is not a 1^st choice major for a lot of students. Poor students living in the provinces outside of the cities are attracted to nursing because it takes a shorter time to complete the degree and a job is guaranteed after graduation due to high demand in hospitals.

Students from provinces are usually from low-income families, or poor, as their parents are farmers. We don’t have government loans for education, and the average income of a farmer is $3,182 USD per year which places a heavy burden on parents who want to send their children to university or to study for a nursing degree.

Tuition fees are:

• Bachelor’s in nursing (BSN) tuition per year is $1,775 USD.
• Associate degree in nursing (ADN.) tuition fee per year is $1,155 USD.

The average living expenses for a student are $150 USD per month, and housing and utilities are around $150 USD per month. It is expensive to live and study in the city.

If you would like to contribute to help sponsor a nursing student’s tuition fee or you can donate even small amounts of money. As private university, we were not usually considered to receive any government funds or international donations as public schools do.

Every contribution will help to save more lives of Cambodian people and provide hope to the potential student nurses who are living in the provinces.

Please contact Ms. Tun Sreypeov at University of Puthisastra via email to discuss how to help.

Tun Sreypeov, RN, MSN tsreypeov1@puthisastra.edu.kh