Global nursing: Educating future nurses for tomorrow’s nursing care needs

In recent years, the world has witnessed the most comprehensive refugee diaspora of modern history. People from the Middle East, Africa and other parts of the world, have fled for their lives because of war, persecution and oppression. ¹ Sweden has been one of the countries that has welcomed these people and has given them refuge. ² The people who have fled have often experienced acute trauma and are vulnerable to physical and/or emotional health issues. ³ They and other care seekers are in need of quality nursing care that is provided by professional and knowledgeable registered nurses. However, taking into account this global mobility and the resulting shift in demographic characteristics in Sweden that is visible in the healthcare sector, ⁴ nurses now need to be particularly competent in relation to addressing global issues.^5–8 The question is, are future nurses educated with enough relevant knowledge and skills to be able to meet tomorrow’s nursing care needs?

The Swedish Red Cross University College (SRCUC) has contributed to the global discourse in several aspects spanning the last years, ⁹ not least those elements related to the International Red Cross tradition and its basic humanitarian principles. ¹⁰ In this opinion piece, we would like to share the stipulated definition that guides our subject profile area: global nursing. This definition has emerged as a result of a rigorous and thorough process of educational change, which consisted of the development and implementation of a global nursing approach that was instilled among faculty members, as well as the design and implementation of a new global nursing curriculum in our undergraduate nursing programme. ¹¹ The ensuing definition of the nationally unique global nursing profile, based on previous research^8,12,13 and reports,^14–19 as well as continuing critical debate, was formulated as follows:

Global nursing is about developing knowledge about health, care, persons, suffering and ecology in local and global contexts. The subject profile area is characterised by advocacy, activism and sustainable development. This includes active use of knowledge and methods that include norm critical approaches to counteract inequalities and social injustice. Ultimately, knowledge in global nursing aims at alleviating suffering, safeguarding human dignity and contributing to health for present and future generations.

In addition to the notion that nurses should continue to care for persons and contribute to their health as well as alleviate suffering, we would like to highlight some aspects in particular which characterise our academic activities in our nursing curriculum. These are:

The local/global binary

Ecology

Advocacy, activism and sustainability

Norm critical approaches to counteract inequalities and social injustice

Nursing care for future generations

A specifically important aspect of the definition is that the local/global binary is inseparable. We believe that it is necessary for nurses to think globally when providing nursing care locally. This position is adopted in the understanding that the earth’s resources are limited and with the awareness that people’s health is influenced by the environment in which we live. Consequently, the nursing care that is provided now should take into account the possibility for future generations to have a healthy life. Equally important is to encourage future nurses to advocate for vulnerable persons and thus strengthen their belief that they can make a difference. Further, nursing care should be provided in sustainable ways. Nurses not only need appropriate knowledge, they also need to be educated in relevant methods and approaches. Adopting critical theories and perspectives may help nurses to identify and uncover repressive structures in nursing care contexts, which can in turn lead to social change. Globally conscious nurses have a particular responsibility not to reproduce stereotypes nor to contribute to ‘we and them’ practices.^20–21 Future nurses should be self-reflexive, which means that they must have the skills to identify and analyse their own social responsibility ²² in their engagement within complex societies in counteracting social injustices.

In summary, and to answer the question that first concerned the SRCUC, we previously had conducted a traditional undergraduate nursing education that needed to be updated in relation to what is now happening globally. However, thanks to the stipulated definition that we developed, we now have the possibility to adopt a new global orientation that will continuously direct and permeate both our education and research profile. By developing and promoting the relevant knowledge and skills in global nursing, we believe that future nurses will be prepared to accommodate tomorrow’s nursing care needs.