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Abstract Aim To clarify the situations of nursing education and activity, its affecting factors and the nursing educators’ views on nurse migration relating Mutual Recognition Agreement on Nursing Services in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Design: Descriptive qualitative research. Methods The individual semi‐structured interviews with 11 nursing educators, analysed using thematic analysis. Results Nursing educators acknowledged that the change in nursing was mainly due to the creation and amendment of laws, acts and regulations regarding nursing and improvements in nursing education systems. Some of these improvements occurred by this mutual agreement. The conceptualization of the progress indicated an improvement in the quality of nursing. Nurse migration to the outside of Southeast Asian countries might be accelerated due to concurrent improvements in the quality of nursing. New trends among nurses working as caregivers in surrounding countries such as China, South Korea and Japan to deal with demographic ageing should be considered.

Nursing's recent progress in fostering better health around the world has been impressive. This progress is due, at least in part, to the higher levels of education nurses are receiving today. However, the goal of developing a stable nursing workforce remains elusive worldwide, due to career progression challenges related to nurse recruitment, education, retention, and promotion. This article provides an overview of existing career pathways in nursing in three Asian countries: Japan, Taiwan, and Thailand. For each country, a brief presentation of the development of nursing is followed by a review of admission requirements for education programs, and a description of available career pathways, including the routes and types of licensure for general and advanced nursing practice. The article concludes with a discussion of issues and challenges common to all three countries, specifically the identity of the nursing profession, limited faculty resources, English language barriers, transitioning of nursing education, and the provision of culturally competent care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]