The development and issues of nursing education in China: a national data analysis

The development of and the issues arising in the nursing educational sector as the provider for nursing workforce have drawn increasing attention.

To describe the development of nursing education in mainland China and to analyze related issues.

A retrospective, descriptive study with secondary data analysis.

The scale and composition of nursing education programs from 2006 to 2012 in mainland China were analyzed, and changes in the scale of the nursing workforce from 2002 to 2013 were compared to facilitate an interpretation of nursing education.

The scale of initial nursing education was large and expanded rapidly. In 2012, the total recruitment was 515,710, including 39,747 (7.71%) students training for a baccalaureate degree, 143,726 (27.87%) students training for an advanced diploma, and 332,237 (64.42%) students training in secondary diploma programs. The nursing workforce in China grew dramatically, with an increase of 120,000 to 286,000 nurses each year since 2006, but the nurse shortage remained existed (there were only 2.05 nurses per 1000 population, and the nurse to doctor ratio was 1:1 in 2013). The recruitment of nursing students per 1000 population was greater in the west (0.51) and middle (0.40) regions than in the east region (0.28), while the number of nurses per 1000 population had the opposite pattern (1.71, 1.75, and 2.02 nurses per 1000 population in the west, middle, and east regions, respectively) in 2012.

Nursing education in China has developed rapidly, and some issues require attention. We suggest that initial nursing education be improved by increasing the recruitment to advanced diploma and baccalaureate programs and decreasing the recruitment to secondary diploma programs and by ensuring the quality of education. Multiple strategies should be taken to effectively raise the social status and prestige of the nursing profession and to ease the nurse shortage.