ENHANCING NURSE MOBILITY IN EUROPE - A CASE FOR LANGUAGE-SKILLS

The recognition of professional qualifications in all European Union ( EU) member states for nurses is covered by both sectoral and general s ystems directives, yet in reality, few nurses take up their rights as European citizens to live and work in another EU country, One of the m ain reasons for this is a lack of linguistic skills, This article argu es that the nursing profession should be taking a more active role in enabling nurses to move freely around Europe by encouraging language a cquisition. It is argued that there are political, social, economic, p rofessional and individual reasons why this should be so, The author g ives a brief account of a pilot project which is currently under way t o help improve (albeit in a small way) this situation, The project, wh ich has been granted financial support of 100000 ECU from the European Commission's new training programme, Leonardo da Vinci, will create a multimedia language pack in four languages aimed specifically at nurs es.