Guest editorial

Abstract

The global nursing shortage has caused competition and cooperation between countries desperate for registered nurses (RNs), and has led to an increase in migration and international recruitment of nurses. Some nursing diplomas or degrees earned in one country may not be transferable to another. As a result, there is growing interest in common standards and competencies of entry-level nurses to guide future registered nurse agreements between countries or multi-country licensure programs. An exploratory study was conducted to investigate how entry-level nurses are educated throughout the world. The researchers sent a nursing education questionnaire to nurse educators in eleven countries inviting them to participate in the study. Nurse educators from The People's Republic of China, Japan and Turkey were the first to agree to participate in the study. They responded to questions about their country's nursing history, types of nursing programs, use of national nursing licensing examination, and social and political influences on nursing education. The nurse researchers did an analysis and comparison of the nursing education in each country.

Investigation of Drug Dose Calculation Skills and Self-Ratings Among Nursing Students

“…Nursing education at a university level has been started in 1955 in Turkey (6) . Turkey was reported to be one of only five European countries providing a basic university-level nursing education with Belgium, England, Greece, and Iceland (7) . In Turkey nursing education is regulated with national and international guiding principles; and curriculum of nursing education involves 4,600 hours of theoretical and practical training (6,8) .…”

Comparison of RN licensure examination: China and the United States

“…During the national educational reforms initiated by the new government, nursing education beyond the secondary level was abolished, and nursing education only regained its academic context in the 1980s. The effects of this 30-year exclusion of nursing from the realm of higher academia are seen today, as China experiences a shortage of nursing faculty with proper teaching qualifications [5].…”