Editorial

Abstract

EDITORIALThe health of the Americas advances without a break in the sense of achieving the Millennium Development Objectives and attention to the national and regional socio-sanitary priorities. However, within this process, the enormous debt of inequality increases in order to alert that many and arduous efforts are needed to overcome the sad and concerning designation of "most unequal continent on the planet."The renovation of Primary Health Care (PHC) is the strategy that American governments have chosen in order to combat inequalities, in order to achieve the right of the highest level of health possible for all the hemisphere's citizens, in order to reach equity in health care, and in order to generate mechanisms for solidarity in social and health care systems which permit previous goals to be attained.Thus, the PHC renovation, according to that defined by governments in the Americas, instead of a practical strategy, is a set of values, principles, and elements which may be adopted by countries in order to face socio-sanitary problems equitably and develop health care systems that respond to their needs with creativity, relevance, and contextualization.In the Americas, nursing has dedicated commitment, intelligence, and efforts towards the health of the population in guaranteeing safe and accessible care to all. More than ever, nursing services are necessary in order to face inequalities, maternal and infantile morbidity, chronic disease, immunization, the consequences from natural disasters and violence, preventing harmful substance abuse, mental health problems, in order to generate community health care promotion and protection, as well as to contribute to the development of integrated health care service networks. However, nursing care is necessary in all phases of life, from its beginning to end.In order to attend such care demands, nursing must be prepared to propose new health care models which might contribute to altering the scenario of health care in the Americas. Nursing must redouble its scientific, practical, political, and administrative efforts in order place greater focus on health care than even nursing itself. It is a challenge for nursing to generate reflection and action towards strengthening and expanding its awareness of society and the adoption of society as a unit of analysis and care unit; a qualitative jump which supposed the scientific, epidemiological, and health care determinant perspective for each action.The confidence our communities have in nurses and nursing is a trust filled with hope and expectation which goes beyond affection and reaches the limits of confidence and responsibility. It is a confidence in nursing's contribution to improving the health care system. Thus, progress in renovating the PHCs and its contribution to reaching the highest level of health for everyone may depend in large part upon the capacity and commitment that nurses have in accepting their social mission.Within this context, the nursing perspective is directed to this challenge, a key dimension ...

Nursing as a Profession in Brazil: Sociological Contributions

“…How do we avoid a reductionist analysis that confounds "basic" action, in the sense of human condition, with "simple" action, that is, from fundamental to rudimentary? "El cuidado se encuentra en la raíz primera del ser humano y representa un modo-de-ser esencial, presente, irreductible, constituyente y base posibilitadora de la existencia humana" [23]. Nursing care, historically and ontologically, emerges as a basic condition to reestablishing human health or comfort [24].…”