Programa de colaboração e graduação internacionais em administração de enfermagem

Abstract

Nursing management or nursing administration, as a field of study or graduate program, offers the opportunity to examine issues influencing quality and security of care provided in a country that could result into policies. Graduate programs in nursing management or nursing administration could benefit from an international collaboration that would bring expertise from other countries and programs to support what one university can offer, regardless of its size. The present reflection will contribute to a more general discussion on issues that may be of interest for a post-graduate program specialized in nursing management. For that purpose, it will present a general perspective on nursing administration content, the context in which an international network in nursing management could exist, some examples of what a foreign faculty could bring to another and finally explore the possibilities of collaboration and implementation based on previous experiences.Before examining a possible collaboration between universities regarding the program, it is important to have a clear understanding of its content or field of study. At University of Sao Paulo (USP), the expression nursing management is used, but elsewhere it is the expression nursing administration that is used. The latter refers to the factors and mechanisms related to the structure, process and outcomes of nursing care and nursing services (1) and aim at obtaining the best patients and nurses outcomes. Ultimately, nursing administration content translates into policies that have an influence on efficiency, efficacy and quality of nursing services (1) . Alternatively, researchers (2) propose a conceptual framework that views nursing administration as an open system with four interdependent core components -patients' health care needs, nursing resources, nursing care processes and outcomes that are influenced by both: the health care organization and the political, social, cultural and economic environment.In this perspective, a graduate program in nursing administration should offer opportunities to study different topics integrating the many aspects of the health care system, such as quality of care, productivity of nursing care, quality of the working environment, and nurse-sensitive outcomes (1)(2) . It should also offer the opportunity to familiarize with politics and analysis of policies, since nursing administration influences them as well as being influenced by them. In sum, nursing administration is an area of specialization that encompasses content essential to health care delivery, but the diversity of knowledge and skills involved in nursing administration makes it difficult for a particular institution to be successful in attracting specialists from every field and to offer a high level of expertise on all the topics related to nursing administration.Health care delivery and nursing administration are influenced by information from different countries that could be highly specialized and cover a large spectrum of interest, and for those reasons, ...