Doctoral education in the context of international development strategies

摘要

The international health and aid communities are actively engaged in addressing pressing health challenges worldwide, and are focusing specifically on achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) related to health, with a target date of 2015. These health goals are reducing child mortality, improving maternal health, and combating HIV/ AIDS, malaria, and other diseases. While progress has been made, much remains to be done.Reading the literature on this topic, a concern emerges; I am struck by the silence of nursing, or rather, lack of mention of nursing and its contribution to these efforts. This does not necessarily mean that nurses, individually or collectively, are not involved in the fight to achieve the MDGs, but rather, that nurses and their efforts are not visible in the international discourse surrounding these matters. Why is this the case?One explanation may reside in the lack of nursing leadership in the countries that are most affected by the problems identified in the health MDGs. Nursing may lack the kind of leadership that gives voice to the health problems affecting the population, that endeavors to work with policy makers, and that helps develop strategies for collaboration in the overall effort.The extent to which dynamic and pro-active nursing leadership is required to address the health problems mentioned above, means that these countries need to develop systematic approaches to prepare and nurture nurse leaders. I believe that this can most effectively be achieved through nursing doctoral education.