The two years transposition period of the modernised Directive 2013/55/EU, amending the Directive 2005/36/EC, are now over, with the deadline of 18 January 2016 for the 28 EU Member States to implement it at national level.
Governing the free movement of several regulated, sectoral professions across the EU, including the nurses, the EFN lobbied hard to make sure that the interests and views of the nurses were taken into account in the modernisation process, knowing that the minimum education requirements for nurses responsible for general care should be reinforced in light of the current advancements in nursing, taking up health promotion and disease prevention, long-term care, community-based care, eHealth, patient safety, research and evidence-based practice. This lobby work positively resulted in the strengthening of the nurse education requirements (4600 hours over a minimum of 3 years), with the addition of a set of 8 nurse competences, which indicate that any future nurse will independently ensure the quality of nursing care. Analysing the quality of care in order to improve as general care nurses the clinical practice becomes a key competence! And it is clear from Article 31 the nursing profession in the EU has become legally and professionally strengthened. Now it is time for National Ministers to implement this EU legislation, if not, infringement procedures are the only option.
To support the national legislation in compliance with the Directive, the EFN developed the EFN Competency Framework describing more in detail the eight legal competences guiding all EU nursing schools to implement the EFN competency framework so the nurses coming out of the nursing schools comply with Article 31 of the Directive. Translated into several languages, for free available, what do you want more!
The next step for the EFN will be to make sure that the legislative EU requirements have been correctly and totally implemented at national level as this is crucial for the quality and safety of the health services delivered by nurses. The first nurse students benefiting from the modernised Directive will need to comply with the EU legislation, if not, their automatic recognition would be at risk, as they will fall under the general system, which undertakes a case by case analysis when moving around for employment in the EU. Historically we have observed that these “nurses” falling under the general system move to other Member States as healthcare assistants, although in their country they are named “nurses”. A waste of a precious nursing workforce which is urgently needed!