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It is important that any schemes to attract nurses back to the profession are targeted at their specific needs.

Enhanced nurse workforce mobility in the European Union (EU) is seen as a remedy to shortages of nurses in some EU countries and a surplus in others. However, knowledge of differences in competence, culture, skill levels and working practices of nursing staff throughout EU countries is not fully documented because currently no tangible method exists to enable comparison. The European Healthcare Training and Accreditation Network (EHTAN) project intends to address this problem by establishing an assessment and evaluation methodology through the compilation of a skills competency matrix. To this end, subsequent to a review of documentation and literature on nursing competence definition and assessment, two versions of a nursing competence self-assessment questionnaire tool have been developed. The final competence matrix will be translated and disseminated for transnational use and it is hoped that this will inform EU and national policies on the training requirements of nurses and nursing mobility and facilitate the promotion of EU-wide recognition of nursing qualifications.