Exploring nurse education in Canada, Finland and the United States.

A global registered nursing (RN) shortage has caused an increase in migration and international recruitment of nurses. There is growing interest among some countries of having common standards and competencies for entry-level registered nurses to guide future registered nurse agreements between countries or multi-country licensure programs. Nursing education in one country may not be accepted as equivalent for a nurse to become licensed in another country. An exploratory study was conducted to gain a better understanding of how nurses are educated in various countries. Nurse researchers sent a nursing education questionnaire to nurse educators in eleven countries inviting them to participate in the study. Nurse educators from six countries agreed to participate in the study. They provided information about their country's nursing history, types of nursing programs, use of national nursing licensing examination, and political influences on nursing education. The People's Republic of China, Japan and Turkey nurse educators' responses were the first to be analyzed and the results were published in the July/August 2005 issue of Contemporary Nurse (volume 19/1-2). This second article (in Contemporary Nurse volume 20/2) provides information about and a comparison of nursing programs in Canada, Finland and the United States.