Nursing education and formation is still heterogenous in spite of The Bologna Declaration
in 1999. Apart from the existence of basic curriculum standards, universities have flexibility regarding
its design. The objective of this study is to provide an overview of contemporary nursing education
and contrast it with the legal frameworks in place in four Southern European countries: Portugal,
Spain, Italy, and Greece. A scoping review was conducted in order to revise and obtain an up-to-date
review of current nursing education and quality. Then, a content evaluation of the legal public
framework was conducted. A total of nine articles were included in the review. Data analysis evoked
three main themes from the results: nursing education heterogeneity owing to ECTS increased from
180 to 240 for the diversity of clinical practice hours; the nursing framework lacked a definition; and
the evolution of nursing education, alongside quality improvement and more accurate guidelines
were required. Regarding their legal framework, the main directives and legislation standards were
assessed and compared with the current curriculum. To conclude, nursing heterogeneity education
evokes competence inequality among students and future professionals as larger curricular programs
(240 ECTS) offer more clinical practice. Nursing education uniformity could enhance international
mobility and promote knowledge exchange and nursing competence framework definitions. These
are facts that certainly bring nursing empowerment. This study was not registered.
This research is part of the project Innovative Skills for Nurses and was funded by the
EUROPEAN UNION, grant number 2022-1-RO01-KA220-HED-000087854. Funding Programme:
Erasmus+ Programme, Cooperation partnerships in higher education.
