Exploring nursing education in the People's Republic of China, Japan and Turkey.

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.