A European survey of general nurses' self assessment of competence.

Policy initiatives have prompted examination of the deployment and mobility of the nursing workforce within the European Union (EU). The European Health Care Training and Accreditation Network [EHTAN, 2005. Available from: <www.kcl.ac.uk/nursing/research/ehtan>] project aims to improve the transparency of nursing qualifications, working practices, skills and experience, thus facilitating nurse workforce mobility, through compilation of a competency matrix [Cowan, D.T., Norman I.J., Coopamah, V.P., 2005a. European healthcare training and accreditation network. British Journal of Nursing 14, 613-617; EHTAN, 2005. Available from: <www.kcl.ac.uk/nursing/research/ehtan>]. This paper reports on a survey across five EU countries in which the EHTAN nurse competence self-assessment tool was utilised. The purpose is to describe migrant nurses perception of their competence in: (a) the country where they trained and qualified and (b) the new country in which they are working and (c) to compare non-migrant nurses perception of their competence across different EU countries.