New nursing education structure in Spain.

Nursing education in Spain is developing rapidly in accordance with the European Union growth and within an international globalization movement. The purpose of this article is to present the new nursing education framework in Spain: A brief history together with its recent reform and developments. Since nursing education was integrated into the university level in 1977, the only academic recognition for such an education in Spain was the three year diploma degree. Nurses had to move into other disciplines in order to achieve academic growth or advance their nursing studies abroad. Currently and in compliance with the Bologna declaration for the Higher European Education Area, nursing education in Spain is being transformed into a program which recognizes bachelor, master and doctoral degrees in this field. In January 2005, the Spanish Government published the guidelines for the undergraduate, master's and doctoral levels, and finally, last October 2007, it established the regulations for the official university education. The current nursing specialties in Spain include family and community health nursing, midwifery, mental health nursing, geriatric nursing, health work nursing, medical care nursing and pediatric nursing. This new nursing education structure is expected to improve health care as well as nursing reliability and autonomy.