Current Status and Prospects for Development of Nursing Professions in Germany

This article deals with the study of current status and prospects for development of nursing professions in Germany. It outlines the classification of “Healthcare Professions” and “Healthcare and Nursing Professions”, which are also identified with “Nursing Professions”. Besides, such concepts as “nursing”, “qualification level 2”, “qualification level 3”, “job vacancy duration” have been defined here. It describes more detailed the second and third qualification levels of nursing professions according to the German Classification of Occupations of 2010. In addition, the article highlights the problem of shortage of nursing personnel in Germany at the level of skilled workers and specialists. Within this paper, the authors analyze the actual data on the shortage of German nursing personnel in healthcare and nursing and geriatric nursing at the level of skilled workers and specialists. Special attention in the paper is paid to the fact that Germany as a member of International Council of Nurses and World Health Organisation, takes part in a worldwide care campaign “Nursing Now”, that was launched on 27 February 2018. It is designed for three years and aims to achieve many goals by the end of 2020: strengthen the role and potential of the nursing professions, thereby improving the health of the world’s population. Much attention in the article is paid to the description of the new German Nursing Professions Act of 17 July 2017 that will enter into force on 1 January 2020. That is why rather perspective is further studies on the peculiarities of professional training of German nursing personnel before and after 1 January 2020.