1.1 Background

Butabika School of Psychiatric Nursing is the only school specialized in training mental health nurses in Uganda. It is located at Butabika Hospital, Nakawa division in Kampala district.

The school was opened in 1960 with enrolled psychiatric nursing, and a capacity of 60 students-22 residents and 18 non residents. In 1967, an extension course for already enrolled psychiatric nurses was introduced. This course enables enrolled psychiatric as well as direct entrants from secondary schools to become enrolled psychiatric nurses.

The introduction of additional programs increased the enrollment from 60 to over 100 students in the 1980s. Enrollment as continued to increase. To day, enrollment is 265 students: 73 for registered mental health nursing, 169 for the enrolled mental nursing course, and 23 on the extension program.

The teaching staffs comprise a principal tutor, 5 tutors and 2 clinical instructors. Admissions are conducted twice in a year by the ministry of Education and Sports and November for the extension and direct program respectively.

Ownership

Butabika School of Psychiatric Nursing is a Government owned Health Training Institution under the Ministry of Education and Sports.

Mandate:

The mandate of the school is to train competent and competitive Psychiatric Nurses capable of servingin all parts of Uganda and the region

BASELINE INFORMATION

Human Resources

The school is equipped with teaching and non teaching staff who support implementation of activities

at the school. The table below shows categories the different staffing levels at the school;

Table 1: Staffing levels at Butabika School of Psychiatric Nursing.

Infrastructure

The school has sufficient room for expansion; it has the basic infrastructure to support implementation of school activities. The basic structures include administration block/offices, a recreation hall, four classrooms, two practical demonstration rooms, a library, a dinning hall, 2 dormitories (one for boys and the other for girls with a capacity of 288 students. Currently the dormitories are occupied by 400 students. The school has a kitchen equipped with energy savers, electric and gas cookers. Other facilities include a standby generator and a small skills laboratory. Offices, classrooms and dormitories

are not adequate to accommodate the increasing numbers of students being admitted. The school has no stores, no sickbay and no guild offices.

The available school infrastructure supports school activities like; School classroom teaching, clinical teaching, community activities, and research

Student Enrolment

At the time of preparing this Strategic Plan, Student population stood at 265 students: 73 for registered mental health nursing, 169 for the enrolled mental nursing course, and 23 on the extension program.

The current student numbers have already surpassed the established capacity of the school putting a strain on the resources in the school.

Each of the three programs conducted has a distinct curriculum that involves students in both theory and practice. Students are involved in clinical experiences in Butabika, Mulago, Nsambya, and Mengo Hospitals. The school also operates a community psychiatric nursing program, in which students are involved.

Summary of student enrolment by the time of developing the Strategic Plan

Academic Programmes

The school offers the following courses:

Enrolled mental nursing (30 months)

Registered Mental nursing (36 months)

Extension at registered level (18 months)

Orientation of nursing, midwifery, and paramedical students in mental health

Sources of Funding

Currently the school has two main sources of funds; there are grants from the Ministry of education and Sports and there is money generated from the privately sponsored students.

VISION, MISSION AND VALUES

Continuous growth and development of Butabika School of Psychiatric Nursing will be judged by the extent to which the school can in the distant future realize its vision and mission.

Vision

An equipped self reliant and leading tertiary center for Mental Health Nursing Research and Learning

Mission Statement

To produce competent mental health professionals (Nurses) that can provide quality mental health care in Uganda and beyond

School Values

Butabika School of Psychiatric Nursing is driven by the following values;

Self-reliance; The school shall strive to ensure that it generates enough resources through provision of quality education. The resources will help the school ensure that no school programmes are unimplemented due to lack of resources.

Teamwork; Butabika School of Psychiatric Nursing has built a team over the years and will ensure that this team spirit is nurtured and further strengthened to help realize the objectives of the school.

Initiative; As a school, we fully appreciate that in the world to day there are many political, social and economic problems which if not watched and ignored can affect outcomes of the school programmes. This calls for innovation and initiative a value that the school will nurture over the years.

Respect; In the implementation of the mandate of the school, respect for leaders, government and self respect will be adhered to at all times by the students, teaching and non teaching staff at Butabika School of Psychiatric Nursing.

The strategic objectives are indicated below-;

Strategic Objectives;

Strategic Objective 1:

To maintain quality and motivated workforce for efficient and effective service delivery.

Key actions to be undertaken will include;

Increase efficiency in programme delivery

Increase incentives for staff and

Increase capacity and resourcefulness of the staff.

Strategic Objective 2: To improve quality and availability of facilities to support

learning. Key actions to be undertaken include;

Improve communication to facilitate efficient and effective service delivery

Improve quality of the resource center/library services

Improve quality of laboratory services

Improve availability of instructional and class equipment

Improve security at the school

Strategic Objective 3: To develop the Research Function of BSPN for improved learning, documentation, dissemination and build capacity for research led training and research related collaboration. Key actions to be undertaken include;

Increase research based learning and programme delivery.

Improve documentation and dissemination

Increase collaboration with Nursing Training institutions for knowledge sharing

Maintain high quality and up to date curricula

Strategic Objective 4: Strengthen BSPN Resource Base Key actions to be undertaken include;

Increase internal resource mobilization to match increasing intake

Increase external resource mobilization

Maintain organizations facilities and equipment

Secure the land of the school to facilitate expansion

Increase facility space

Streamline fundraising and expenditure.

Strategic Objective 5: To reduce the Tutor-Student ratio, at the same time improving programming to increase enrollment so as to improve quality of

learning. Key areas of action include;

Extend service delivery to the international community

Maintain entry requirements for good standards

Increase programme delivery alternatives.

Strategic Objective 6: To improve student and staff participation in extra-curricular activities. Key planned actions include;

Avail a conducive environment for extra curricular activities

Provide active recreation facilities.

Strategic Objective 7: To increase the institutional role of BSPN in the Mental Health

Training field. Key planned actions include;.

Increase collaboration with Butabika Hospital and other mental health centers

Increase collaboration with NMWC and UNMEB for efficient management of examination and registration.

Work with stakeholders such as the Ministry of Education and Sports to match intake with available facilities.

To lobby for representation of Nurses at MoES (BTVET department)

Administration Block

Principal of Butabika School of Psychiatric Nursing

Yedidah Biribonna

A student in a computer laboratory room

Library of BSPN

Students in a discussion session