Safe pharmaceutical care requires competent nurses with specific knowledge, skills and attitudes. It is unclear whether nursing students are adequately prepared to perform pharmaceutical care in practice. Mapping their pharmaceutical care competences can lead to a better understanding of the extent to which curricula fit expectations of the labour market. To assess pharmaceutical care competences of final-year nursing students of different educational levels. A cross-sectional survey design. In 14 European countries, nursing schools who offer curricula for level 4 to 7 students were approached. Through convenience sampling 1741 final-year student nurses of level 4 to 7 were included. Sampling strategies were country-specific. A web-platform was developed with an assessment of the level in which students mastered pharmaceutical care competences. Knowledge questions, case studies (basic/advanced level), self-reported practical skills and attitudes were evaluated. Mean scores for knowledge questions differed significantly (p < 0.001) between level 5 (56/100), level 6 (68/100) and level 7 students (72/100). For basic cases level 5 students reached lower scores (64/100) compared with level 6 (71/100) and level 7 (72/100) students (p = 0.002 and p = 0.005). For more advanced cases no difference between levels was observed (overall mean 61/100). Most students (63-90 %) considered themselves skilled to perform pharmaceutical care and had positive attitudes towards their participation in pharmaceutical care (65-97 %). Relatively low knowledge scores were calculated for final-year student nurses. In some domains, lower levels of students might be insufficiently prepared to take up responsibilities in pharmaceutical care. Our assessment can be used as a tool for educators to evaluate how prepared nursing students are for pharmaceutical care. Its further implementation for students of different educational levels will allow benchmarking between the levels, both within and between countries.

The cultivation of critical thinking and decision-making skills promotes student autonomy. Only a few instruments measure nursing students’ autonomy, and the PALOP^® Scale is one of them. This study aimed to semantically and culturally adapt the PALOP^® Scale to European Portuguese and assess the psychometric properties of a short version. A methodological study was conducted with 530 second and fourth-year undergraduate nursing students. Content validity was assessed using exploratory and discriminant factor analysis, and reliability was determined through analyses of internal consistency, temporal stability, and floor and ceiling effects. The analysis of the psychometric properties of a short version of the PALOP^®—PT Scale revealed complete agreement (100%) among panel members for content validity. The scale also showed discriminative capacity among second- and fourth-year students (t (528) = −7.907, p < 0.001) with a five-factor structure, with a total explained variance of 57.2%. Reliability analysis showed excellent internal consistency (α = 0.935) and moderate temporal stability (95% ICC (3.1) = 0.520 [0.290—0.693], p < 0.01). The short version of the PALOP^®–PT Scale is a promising tool to assess nursing students’ perceived autonomy and identify necessary adjustments to their professional identity.