Organised in co-operation with the European Commission, the Ministry of Health of Albania, and the Order of Nurses of Albania (EFN Member), this TAIEX workshop brought together experts in the nursing field who provided a comprehensive overview of the EU Directive 2013/55/EC on the Recognition of Professional Qualifications as it relates to the nursing profession, providing also examples of compliance practice across the EU Member States (namely, Lithuania, Poland, and Romania) both in terms of educational requirements, as well as possible pitfalls on the path towards compliance.
The workshop participants also discussed the state of art of Albania in complying with Acquis, the EU Accession process, what are the minimum educational requirements for nurses at EU Level (Directive 2013/55/EC and article 31), what have been done in the field: legislation, regulations and competences for nurses and midwives, how to ensure compliance at national level with the DIR2013/55/EU, how to build synergies between national & nursing stakeholders, and concrete actions towards EU compliance in Albania.
Invited as expert, the EFN Secretary General, Paul De Raeve, explained that “The modernisation of the Directive 2005/36/EU, now called Directive 2013/55/EU, has been an extremely intense lobby process with EFN speaking out loudly for nurses and the nursing profession. The Directive establishes the minimum requirements for nurses’ training and includes eight key competences that nurses have to acquire during their studies (art 31). An important aspect of Directive 55 is that student nurses are expected to be proficient, skilled and confident in leading and organising nursing care. Furthermore, qualified nurses are demanded to have full responsibility over their practice and administration of their work. This constitutes not only a basis for a successful system change, which can be developed much further at the European level, the Directive also attributes important key roles to the nurses within the healthcare system such as coaching, leading and evaluating care outcomes.”
