About us

The Nursing school Mlinarska is the first professional school for the training of nurses in northern Croatia. It was founded with the aim of being a participant in the development of preventive and social medicine at the beginning of the 20th century.

In 1920, Dr Vladimir Čepulić was the impetus for the foundation of the School for Nursing. He was also supported by Dr Štampar. Thus, the school was founded in 1921 as the first school for nurses in Zagreb. The first director was the founder himself, Dr Čepulić, who held that position until 1925.

Since 1923, the school has been operating in Mlinarska Street within five wooden pavilions (barracks) obtained from Germany after the First World War. They organize accommodation and classes for schoolgirls and their teachers. Word spread about the quality of education at the School, so the Rockefeller Foundation, which supported the development of health institutions, donated financial aid to it in 1925. Masonry buildings were built with these funds and are still in use today. The Rockefeller Foundation also helped in 1941 with the construction of the building of the then boarding school.

The school became a member of the International Association of Nurses in 1929, and in 1945 it was named The Nursing school.

In 1953/54, thanks to Dr Štampar, the school received the status of Higher School for Nurses and operated in that status until 1959. In the same year, in accordance with the new law on education, it was again included in the secondary education system as a four-year school, and in 1959/60 for the first time in its history, it fell under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education. In 1963 and 1976, the construction of a new building began, where classes are still held today. The older building remained in the function of a students dorm for those schoolgirls who are from distant regions.

Since 2010, the school has been reformed in a manner approved by the European Union, and a five-year education was introduced. First and second grades are for general subjects, and third, fourth and fifth are training in the profession.

As a result of the school’s success in all segments of activity over a number of previous years, the Nursing school Mlinarska was declared the Regional Competence Center in the Health Sector for the City of Zagreb and Zagreb and Sisak-Moslavina Counties in 2018.

As a Regional Competence Center, the school has opened its doors wide to a large number of cooperating institutions, companies and institutions. All schools from the Center’s area of activity are included in RCC as permanent components, so the total number of health secondary schools included in the Center of Competence is six. These are ŠMS Mlinarska (Nursing school Mlinarska), ŠMS Vinogradska (Nursing school Vinogradska), Zdravstveno učilite (Health school Zagreb), Škola za primalje Zagreb (Midwifery school Zagreb), Srednja škola Viktorovac, Sisak (Viktorovac High school, Sisak), and Srednja škola Topusko (Topusko High school).

In addition to schools, Regional Competence Center also includes institutions for adult education, professional chambers, clinical hospital centers, health centers, hospitals, polyclinics, public health institutes, scientific institutions, higher education institutions, student and retirement homes and civil organizations. The founder, the City of Zagreb, provides significant support to the activities of Regional Competence Center, without which its existence would not be possible.

For the purposes of establishing the Competence center and building the necessary spatial capacities, the school provided more than 10 million euros from European funds. The current and future development of Regional Competence Center aims to achieve internationally recognized Center of Vocational Excellence.

As part of the Regional Competence Center Mlinarska, 8 centers have been developed and established that cover all the areas RCC is dedicated to, and they are: Center for Ergonomics and Salutogenesis, Center for Research and Development, Center for Adult Education, Center for Career Guidance and Development, Center for Projects, Innovations and Entrepreneurship, Center for Accommodation, Center for e-Learning and Volunteer Center.

RCC Mlinarska’s mission is to achieve excellence in lifelong education in the field of healthcare through the modernization of professional curricula and infrastructure, based on the principles of partnership and social benefit with an emphasis on ergonomics and salutogenesis, and responding to the needs of the labor market.

Vision: RCC Mlinarska as an independent organization with a highly developed infrastructure provides modern education and conditions for the development of ergonomics and salutogenesis while increasing social benefits and improved partnership relations.