Strategic planning and actions in health: nursing's contributions to the strengthening of global health

Abstract

Strategic planning represents a fundamental tool for outlining, putting in practice, controlling and assessing actions so as to result in positive changes. In this sense, during the most recent World Health Assembly held in May 2009, the World Health Organization approved its strategic planning for the next five years. With the general goal of "improving health services through better governance, financing, staffing and management informed by reliable and accessible evidence and research (1) ", WHO calls upon its Member States to put in practice strategic actions with a view to the achievement of a set of expected results:"-Dissemination of knowledge and evidence for health decision-making assured through consolidation and publication of existing and accessible evidence, facilitation of knowledge generation in priority areas, and strengthening of leaderships active in health research policy and coordination, including with regard to ethical conduct; -knowledge management and eHealth policies and strategies developed and implemented in order to strengthen health systems; -health workforce information and knowledge base strengthened; -technical support provided to Member States, with a focus on those facing severe health-workforce difficulties in order to improve the production, distribution, skill mix and retention of the health workforce; -norms, standards and measurement tools developed to support Member States to quantify and maximize the security level in all stages of health care" (1) .Member States are expected to incorporate these strategies in their national work plans, which will influence practice and, hence, health research. On the other hand, nursing professionals' already existing concern with many of the themes WHO appoints is also observed, for example the authors of different studies carried out and published by the Latin American Journal of Nursing, which demonstrates the pro-active and innovative vision of professionals in this area.We invite all readers to continue assuming nursing's responsibility in the advancement of health, contributing to the achievement of the results highlighted by WHO.