Nursing on the European map

There is little good data on the state of nursing in Europe. The World Health Organization has therefore compiled nursing and midwifery profiles of most of its 50 European member states, and used them to analyse the current situation, spot trends, enable meaningful comparisons and stimulate development. The author, who launched this project while working as regional adviser for nursing and midwifery in WHO's European regional office from 1991-95, describes how the profiles were compiled and uses nursing leadership in Europe as a case study to illustrate the type of information and analysis contained in the study.