Evolving global education standards for nurses and midwives.

More than a a decade ago nurse experts identified information critical for their practice in the 21st century, initiated by the increasing globalization of healthcare and nursing education. Much has happened since then. We know more about the healthcare needs of developing and developed countries, although solutions remain problematic. Although nurses continue to migrate, exaggerating developing country health issues, they are plagued by the variability in how they are educated. For example, some countries prepare nurses in high school, while in other countries nurses are educated in institutions of higher education. Recognizing this variability, nurse leaders have undertaken several efforts to address this variability. The purpose of this article is to highlight several issues associated with global education in general, describe current efforts in nursing and midwifery to strengthen nursing education, and discuss why these efforts are relevant to maternal-child nurses. This information is particularly relevant when one considers the contributions appropriately educated nurses and midwives can make as achieving select United Nations Millennium Development Goals.