Internationally nursing is largely a regulated profession, that is, to practice as a nurse, nurses need to be licensed or registered. The International Council of Nurses (ICN) believes ‘that profession-led nursing regulation contributes to public protection and quality patient outcomes through establishing, promoting and enforcing standards of practice’ (International Council of Nurses, 2013). The regulatory body in each country where a nurse practices requires to set standards of practice (International Council of Nurses, 2013). This is essential to ensure the maintenance of high-quality care, that is, nurses have the knowledge, skills and ability to practice based on the best available evidence, taking into consideration legal, and ethical issues and the need for collaboration when delivering compassionate care in complex health care environments. Of greater significance is that these standards are understood and clearly communicated.

Quality pre-registration education plays a crucial role in ensuring nursing students meet the requisite standards (Henderson et al., 2012). Internationally, universities and other education providers generally have autonomy in the design of their curriculum in so far as it meets the accreditation requirements of their state or national regulatory body, for example, the individual states in the USA and Canada, and National Boards in the United Kingdom and Australia. While this autonomy means programs/courses can differ in the teaching, learning and assessment of students, university and educational institutions need to be able to verify that the requisite competency standards have been met by the student upon graduation. This eliminates a ‘one size fits all approach’ with respect to the education provisions in the preparation of nurses (O'Connor et al., 2009), that is, university and other education providers can be flexible and diverse in their teaching, learning and assessment, as long as their graduates meet the stipulated standards of practice.