Quality and relevance of master degree education for the professional development of nurses and midwives

Background: Advanced education in nursing is essential to provide safe, high quality and efficient health services in line with population needs. However, there is an almost complete lack of studies on how nurses view the usefulness of post-graduate education for their current employment and for professional advancement. Objectives: To evaluate how nurse graduates view the quality, relevance and applicability of the knowledge and skills acquired during the Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) degree. Design: Multicentre cross-sectional study. Methods: A multicenter cross-sectional study was carried out through an online questionnaire mailed (July 2014–June 2015) to 560 nurses who obtained the MSN degree from 23 Italian universities in the academic year 2010–2011. Discussion: A total of 426 nurses completed the survey (response rate 76.1%), 80% of whom believed they had acquired knowledge and skills useful in their professional life after graduation. A multiple logistic regression model highlighted the characteristics of nurse graduates who judged the master's course relevant for their present role. In brief, they are expert nurses (OR =3.41, 95% CI =1.54–7.54) who achieved professional growth after the course (OR =5.25, 95% CI =2.67–10.33) and who judged the course very good or excellent (OR =2.16, 95% CI =1.04–4.52). Only 8% of the respondents achieved a full professional growth after the course. Conclusion: In Italy, MSN courses are able to provide a high level of skills and competencies. However, given the low rate of professional growth after the course, specific policies should increase the employment rates of new master's graduate nurses.