Snapshot

APN Role Exists in Country Today:
No

Contact:
Hellenic Nurses’ Association

Role

The nursing role in Greece struggles with great job dissatisfaction today.  According to the OECD 2012 health review, Greece’s nurses report a European high of 56% stating they desire to leave their job position.  Once great contributing factor is that there are more physicians that nurses in the country, leading to a shortage of nurses to provide care (Lavdaniti et al., 2008; OECD, 2012).  As a result, there is very little support for advancing the nursing role in the country.

However, there is motivation to expand the nursing role in Greece as there is currently education and seeking out of governance of Nurse Anesthetists in the country (Hellenic Nurses’ Association, 2013).

Education and Certification

Currently, the nursing education system offers master degrees in nursing for educators and individuals in director positions in healthcare (Robinson & Griffiths, 2007).  Additionally, some doctoral degrees are also being pursued, taught and supervised by the medical schools in the country (Robinson & Griffiths, 2007).   There is currently no certification or registration for Advanced Practice Nursing in the country.  Nurses can however seek 3 additional years of training to pursue nurse midwifery.

Specialties

While the role is not particularly expanded for nurses in Greece, individuals can regard themselves as a nurse-specialist.  There are several groups of nurse-specialists recognized by the Hellenic Nurses’ Association (2013):

• Oncology
• Anesthesiology
• Administration
• Emergency and Intensive Care
• Education
• Primary Health Care and Community
• Mental Health
• Pediatric

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References:
Dimitriadou, A., Lavdanti, M., Theofanidis, D., Psychogiou, M., Minasidou, E. … Sapountzi-Krepia, D. (2008).  Interprofessional collaboration and collaboration among nursing staff members in Northern Greece.  International Journal of Caring Sciences. 1(3),140-146

Hellenic Nurses’ Association (2013).  Notice nursing department of anesthesiology ESNE.  Retrieved from: http://www.esne.gr/

OECD (2012). Health At a Glance: Europe 2012 (2nd ed.).  OECD Publishing.  doi: 10.1787/9789264183896-en

Robinson, S. & Griffiths, P. (2007).  Nursing education and regulation: International profiles and perspectives [online publication].  Retrieved from: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/348772/1/NurseEduProfiles.pdf