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Recently, Maria Teresa Lluch has been elected the new dean of the Faculty of Nursing at the University of Barcelona. A position that she assumes with enthusiasm after having dedicated a good part of her professional career to teaching this profession and being a great specialist in mental health nursing.
Now, from his position, he does not abandon his ideology or the maximum demands of the group for which he intends to work so that one day they cease to be just that, demands. Meanwhile, Lluch knows that there is a long way to go and demonstrate to the public that a nurse is much more than someone who vaccinates, extracts samples or heals a wound. In fact, the General Nursing Council affirms that the role of its professionals continues to be very unknown by society, even though they are the health personnel best valued by citizens, with an 8.29 out of 10.
After a long journey, the Faculty of Nursing is a reality at the University of Barcelona. He was born in the University. First as a university nursing school, which later became part of the structure of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. And now, a detachment from the latter makes it its own faculty, with complete autonomy and unanimously approved by the entire sector.
Maria Teresa Lluch comes to the helm of the faculty “at a very beautiful moment,” says the dean, “because this distinction gives us more visibility at all levels.” Lluch hopes to build, together with all the members of Nursing, a full faculty, with all the services that will continue to make the teaching campuses, Bellvitge and Clínic, centers of reference and excellence.
In a few years, the dean hopes to have changed the faculty’s very identifying infrastructures. At the level of academic teaching staff, Lluch is committed to a significant growth in nursing professors, more stable professors and the implementation of related positions. And as for students, the dean intends, at a minimum, to maintain the quality levels achieved and increase them progressively. She would like to increase the internalization of students, reinforce structures at the research level with more groups, more European and international projects. and obtain more technical reinforcement of management and administration of services.
Employment and international references
The new head of the Faculty of Nursing celebrates the level of employment that accompanies graduates in their career, although she recognizes that it should be accompanied by better working and salary conditions. Even so, “we are leaders and we are a reference for many Europeans,” she says. “In Spain we have a lot of international recognition,” and she adds “we are the mirror of many who want to resemble our training system.”
Maria Teresa recognizes that research has been decisive for the independence of Nursing, and assures that Spanish nursing has great impact internationally due to the high level of scientific publications.
Over the years, the nursing profile has not changed much. The dean defines them as “people who really want to show their talent with a great vocational and social help component.” Progressively, men are gaining ground in the total figures, although they are still at a symbolic 20%. Nursing continues to be a very feminine profession, although there are more and more boys who study it.
Lluch recognizes that betting on nursing is doing so on a winning horse, because in the workplace nurses are required everywhere. He even believes that “we are in a critical situation” regarding the lack of these professionals. “We are coinciding with the peak of retirement of those nurses who entered so many health centers that were built in the seventies,” he justifies. So right now the career has a good job opportunity and an occupancy level close to one hundred percent.
Maxims to improve
The Dean of Nursing regrets that, today, the specialties that nurses study are not taken into account much when it comes to finding work, since many of them are not recognized. “Except for obstetric-gynecological nursing and, in some autonomous communities, mental health nursing, the rest of the specialties have little formal recognition,” Lluch denounces.
