Open education resources to support the WHO nurse educator core competencies

Area of Science:

• Nursing Education
• Global Health Workforce Development

Background:

• The global shortage of qualified nurse educators hinders nursing workforce expansion, particularly in low- and middle-income countries.
• The World Health Organization (WHO) developed Nurse Educator Core Competencies, but resource limitations impede their implementation.
• Nurses International developed Open Education Resources (NI-OER) to provide free curriculum materials and remote mentoring for nurse educators.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the alignment of Nurses International Open Education Resources (NI-OER) with the World Health Organization Nurse Educator Core Competencies.
• To assess the potential of NI-OER to address challenges in nurse educator training and support.

Main Methods:

• Item analysis was employed to examine the congruence between NI-OER components and each WHO Nurse Educator Core Competency.
• The study assessed the applicability of NI-OER for higher education institutions and individual faculty.

Main Results:

• Nurses International Open Education Resources (NI-OER) demonstrated a strong fit with six of the WHO Nurse Educator Core Competencies.
• A partial fit was observed with the remaining two WHO Nurse Educator Core Competencies, indicating broad applicability.

Conclusions:

• The congruence of NI-OER with WHO competencies validates its utility as a resource for nurse educators.
• NI-OER, coupled with remote mentoring, offers a promising solution to support novice nurse educators and enhance global nursing capacity.
• Technological innovations like NI-OER are crucial tools, though not sole solutions, for addressing the complex global nursing shortage.