The Faculty of Health Sciences is the eighth and the youngest Faculty of Palacký University in Olomouc. It was established in 2008 and focuses on education of non-medical professionals in health care, whose specification complies with the Act No.96/2004 Coll. The Faculty of Health Sciences detached from the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry of Palacký University that had conducted non-medical healthcare programmes until then. The detachment resulted from the differences in profiles and competencies of the graduates and from unequal research focus areas of the study programmes.
The education of non-medical professionals was launched even before the political changes at the end of the last century. Study Programmes such as Nursing Pedagogy and Teaching at Secondary Schools for Nurses taught at the Faculty of Education at Palacký University were those that opened up the development of university education for non-medical healthcare professionals. The 1990s brought social changes, the acceptance of Bologna Declaration and the innovation in requirements for healthcare professionals. Study programmes such as General Nursing, Midwifery, Physiotherapy, Radiology Assistant and many other have undergone a transformation in the Czech Republic. They have changed from a secondary school type education into bachelor study programmes at universities. Their individual advancement has been deepened worldwide and their existence within Faculties of Medicine is less common. Currently, it is not effective to be influenced by the fields of medicine in development priorities, education and research of non-medical specialties.
The Faculty of Health Sciences provides eight specialties in four study programmes and a postgraduate Nursing Programme. Cooperation with the Faculty of Science has been carried out in the bachelor degree study programme of Optometry for several years and in the new programme of Orthoptics since the academic year of 2008/2009. The Faculty of Health Sciences has been also involved in the master degree study programme of Teaching of Specialized Subjects at Secondary Schools for Nurses since 2008/2009.
