This book provides a review of central contributions from a variety of countries, and is intended to enhance and expand the national professional dialogue on curricula in nursing and midwifery education. All questions of a general nature related to the topic of “curricula” are dealt within the framework of this internationally oriented anthology. Though the contributions may address challenges concerning curriculum work in a specific country, they have been selected and structured to ensure their applicability to other countries.

When there are major changes in nursing and midwifery care, nursing (and midwifery) education has to change, too. Curricula offer an important basis for shaping educational processes at vocational schools and universities. The discussion of nursing and midwifery curricula is currently primarily taking place at the national level. The book shows that the approaches and instruments used in the development, construction, implementation and evaluation of curricula in nursing and midwifery education in different countries relate to very similar theoretical foundations. This finding can be seen as a confirmation of the national approaches. Although the book chiefly focuses on nursing education, examples from midwifery education are also included, so as to foster international and interprofessional cooperation.

Prof. Dr. Ingrid Darmann-Finck is a Professor of Nursing at the University of Bremen, Institute for Public Health and Nursing Research, Germany, since 2003. She underwent training in nursing and worked as a nurse for several years (1988-1998). This was followed by a teacher training course. From 1994-2003, she was a research fellow at University of Hamburg and commenced there her PhD at in 1999. Her research interests are nursing didactics, curriculum development and learning with digital media. Since several years she is a consultant in nursing education for the German Ministry of Health.

Prof. Dr. Karin Reiber is a Professor at the University of Applied Sciences Esslingen, Germany. She worked as a nurse in different fields and wards after her vocational education in nursing (1981-1988). Then she studied Educational Sciences, Psychology and Sociology at Eberhard-Karls-University Tübingen and got her Diploma-Degree 1996. As a social scientist she worked in a consulting company of NGOs in the area of healthcare. Subsequently she went back to University as a graduate and achieved her PhD in 2003. After a stage as a Postdoc she was appointed to a professorship for Nursing Education, first at University of Applied Sciences Weingarten (2006), later-on at Esslingen (2008), where she is researching up to now. Her special fields of study are Competencies, Learning and professional approaches to Teaching in Nursing.