Proud to offer a nursing education experience for nearly 100 years

 

The history of the Koç University School of Nursing dates back to the founding of the American Hospital Nursing School, which was based at the American Hospital, on May 20, 1920 in Istanbul.

 

1920

The American Hospital Nursing School, founded within the structure of the American Hospital through the leadership of Admiral Mark Lambert Bristol, began offering a two-and-a-half-year education program on August 20, 1920.

Providing an education following American standards, the school was established to meet the healthcare needs of Americans in the Near East as well as the need to fill the shortage of nurses in Türkiye, to provide health care to all regardless of their nationality or religion, and to train nurses in order to make a difference in patient care.

In 1957 the school was registered by the Ministry of Education and named the Admiral Bristol Nursing School, and it became an equivalent of a nursing college that offered a four-year vocational high school education.

In 1976 it was named the Admiral Bristol Nursing High School.

In 1981 the name was changed to the Admiral Bristol Nursing Vocational High School.

High School Education Period

Our school has contributed significantly to the development of such esteemed nurses as Esma Deniz, one of the first graduates of the school and Gülsevim Çeviker, who served as the director of the school for many years.

 

The Koç University School of Nursing aspires to be Türkiye’s leading educational institution for nursing that advocates the importance of nursing in the improvement and promotion of health at both the national and international levels.

 

1995
Vehbi Koç Foundation

The Admiral Bristol Vocational Nursing High School was taken over by the Vehbi Koç Foundation in 1995 and was transformed into a School of Health affiliated to Koç University with the Cabinet of Ministers’ decree dated August 12, 1998 (Official Gazette, 23.09.1998) under the leadership of Ms. Semahat Arsel, who has provided very significant contributions to the professional development of nurses in Türkiye. The education program of the School of Health, which accepted its first students during the 1998–1999 academic year, was designed in cooperation with the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing following international standards.

 

This well-established school, which thrives vigorously in parallel with the changes at the Council of Higher Education, was then transformed into the Koç University School of Nursing by the Cabinet of Ministers’ decree dated December 12, 2005 (Official Gazette, 27.12.2005), and following that into a college with the Cabinet of Ministers’ decree dated March 14, 2016 (Official Gazette, 08.04.2016) when it became the seventh college of Koç University.

 

School of Nursing

2011
Starting the Graduate Education

Graduate education started in 2011 with the Master of Science Program in Intensive Care Nursing. In 2013–2014, the MS in Nursing and PhD in Nursing programs were launched under the Graduate School of Health Sciences.

 

The School of Nursing, which was located on the Nisantaşı campus from 1998 to 2015, has been continuing its activities at the Koç University Health Sciences campus since July 2015.

 

2015
Health Sciences Campus

The nursing faculty is excited to foster nurses who will guide the future with the power they inherit through the history of their school.

 

In autumn 2016, the school was accredited by the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing (ACEN) from the USA and became the first and only School of Nursing with international accreditation in Türkiye.

The School of Nursing strives to foster not only nurses and nurse leaders who will serve effectively in multi-faceted roles in a constantly changing and evolving healthcare system and in different environments but also nurse scientists who will contribute to the development of scientific research.

2016
ACEN Accreditation

2018

With its state-of-the-art technology, internationally approved nursing curricula, and the Rahmi M. Koç Academy of Interventional Medicine, Education, and Simulation (RMK AIMES) center, the Koç University Health Sciences Campus increases multidisciplinary/interdisciplinary educational opportunities each year. Koç University Hospital, in collaboration with Vehbi Koç Foundation health institutions and other public institutions, offers the students placement opportunities for clinical practice in a variety of areas in efficient and positive learning environments.

 

The Koç University School of Nursing has been a pioneer in interdisciplinary innovative research that will contribute to the development of nursing science and nursing services as well as to the improvement of public health with its strong, nationally and internationally recognized academic staff.

 

In order to increase the quality of nursing education and services, the school carries out community-based research and health education activities with all national and international stakeholders and in cooperation with regional institutions and organizations in order to promote public health.

 

The School of Nursing is proud to have accepted students from the highest success rates in the Higher Education Institutions Examination who will guide the future of the nursing profession.

 

As addressed by the main supporter of our school, Ms. Semahat Arsel, the ultimate goal of the School of Nursing is to serve the community. Our school will continue to be a leading institution that plays an active role in not only promoting qualified nurses for this purpose but also introducing the evidence obtained by scientific methods to the healthcare system and determining the health policies for the benefit of the society.

 

“My biggest wish is that nurses, whom I believe to have a very important place in the field of health, provide the highest level of care that the public deserves.”

Semahat ARSEL