Evaluation of the Roles, Competencies and Responsibilities of Women’s Health Nurses at the International Level

Starting from 1960s, the strong trends in the direction of extending the scope of nursing practice in the provision of health services in many countries in the world, particularly the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia, has led to the development of advanced nursing roles in Western countries. In developed countries, women’s health nursing is a special area of advanced nursing practice that provides a women-centered holistic approach in delivery of primary health care services, requires master’s or doctoral level specialist knowledge and has dynamic and highly autonomous roles. In Turkey despite having the possibility of specialization with master’s and doctoral programs in the fi eld of Women’s Health and Diseases Nursing for many years, their extended roles and responsibilities over traditional care practices have not been defi ned for those nurses who become more profi cient in special areas with post-graduate education. In this review, the roles, competencies and responsibilities of women’s health nurses were examined at the international level and recommendations are given.