Global Nursing Education: International Resources Meet the NLN Core Competencies for Nurse Educators

Abstract

The global need for nurses and nurse educators presents a challenge to meet the needs of the world-wide population. International level targets, such as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, are in place and expectations of graduates are evolving rapidly due to increasingly complex healthcare needs. The capacity of effective nurse educators is a significant constraint to addressing the global shortage of nurses. The National League for Nursing (NLN) has established eight core competencies for nurse educators to ensure that education of nurses is robust. This article briefly discusses the shortage at hand. We describe the Nurses International - Open Educational Resources (NI-OERs) initiative to align freely available content and support with the NLN competencies to develop nurse faculty and attain nursing education equity in low and middle-income countries. In conclusion, this work will help to develop a better prepared cadre of global nurse educators who can equip nurses with current evidenced based knowledge to deliver healthcare across global populations.