Linking Global Citizenship, Undergraduate Nursing Education, and Professional Nursing Curricular Innovation in the 21st Century

As we move into the 21st century, our roles as nurses are becoming more complex. Inequities in health within and across nations demand that nursing students examine the interconnectedness between local and global health challenges and contribute to the development and implementation of solutions to these challenges. In this article, we examine concepts related to global citizenship, globalization, social responsibility, and professionalism and link them to curricular innovation in nursing education. We argue that the development of global citizenship is a fundamental goal for all nursing students and that to achieve this, nurse educators must move beyond the creation of international placement opportunities or the use of global examples within existing courses. Nurse educators must develop strategies and design innovative curricula to provide opportunities for all students to become engaged with the concept of global citizenship and the role of nurses in a global world.