AQU Catalunya publishes its first Nursing Benchmark Document
The document aims to guide universities in the process of designing and assessing new degrees that will enable them to practise nursing.
In March, AQU Catalunya published its first benchmark document dedicated to nursing. This document has been published to make it easier for universities to navigate through the design of new nursing degrees and, in the case of existing degrees, to facilitate the process of modification. The document is intended to serve various stakeholders for a wide range of purposes. Apart from the goals mentioned above, it also aims to inform wider society, particularly future students and employers, about the characteristics of the study programmes and their learning outcomes.
While not prescriptive and not seeking to establish a standard curriculum for all university institutions, it aims to guide them in the design of the Nursing Degree. Furthermore, as it does not seek to establish specific approaches to teaching, learning and assessment methodologies, institutions may adapt it to their own context and individual training objectives.
Among the reference frameworks used to articulate these standards is the Marc VSMA, which focuses on validating new teaching proposals, monitoring their deployment, evaluating any modifications, and accrediting study programmes cyclically.
The fact that Nursing is a regulated profession means that there is a direct link between the university system and the health and social system, which directly affects the training proposals for this degree. New health challenges have arisen in this context, which presuppose that nursing professionals must assume greater responsibility in the health processes of individuals, families and communities. For example, these include community care, chronicity, research and ICT. Therefore, training for nursing professionals needs to be reoriented in order to provide technical and professional health care that is appropriate to the new health needs of the groups they serve. International organisations such as the WHO and the UN remind us of the social importance of investing in nursing personnel in the world, implying the need to promote the leadership of these professionals and improve the profession through better training, tending towards harmonised curricula.
This Nursing Benchmark was written by Eugenia Gil García, María Loreto Macià Soler, María Carmen Moreno Arroyo and María Pilar Tazón Ansola with the collaboration of Josep Manel Torres and Caterina Cazalla Lorite.