EVALUATING LIBRARY RESOURCES IN NURSING AND ALLIED HEALTH INSTITUTES: COMPLIANCE WITH PAKISTAN NURSING COUNCIL STANDARDS IN KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA

Abstract

The present paper assesses the level of library facilities and their adherence to Pakistan Nursing Council (PNC) standards in the libraries of nursing and allied health sciences institutes in the state of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), in Pakistan. The information was gathered during my thesis research in MS and the paper was written under the instructions of my supervisor in research. The research design that was used quantitative descriptive research design where information on 40 library professionals in different institutions within the Malakand Division was used. The results show that (84.4 %) of the libraries are operated by competent professionals, but many of them have low standards of collection 1,500 books and at least 10 reference works per student seat based on the minimum collection required by PNC. The access to current research and evidence-based practice is also restricted as only 22.5 percent of the surveyed libraries subscribe to academic or scholarly journals. Also, only a quarter have sufficient reference collections implying that there is a great shortage in basic information resources that are vital to nursing and associated health education. On the aspect of technological integration, the outcomes indicate that 32.5 percent of libraries have undertaken at least some sort of library automation although most libraries continue to use manual systems to effect cataloging and circulation. Despite the fact that most institutions have access to the internet and computer facilities, they do not utilize all the resources because of the poor digital collections, poor e-resources through subscription plans, and poor technical infrastructure. All in all, the research finds that there exists a significant compliance gap between the practices in the present day libraries and the standards provided by the Pakistan Nursing Council. In order to improve the quality of academic programs and enable efficient teaching and learning, the paper suggests that more funds should be allocated to library development, more institutions should cooperate and share resources and modern digital devices and automated systems should be implemented. Enhancement of libraries in these locations is critical towards enhancing access to information and provision of high quality of nursing and allied health education in KP.