Havana, cuba.- Cuba has one nurse for every 123 inhabitants, Cuban Health Minister Jose Angel Portal said on Tuesday during the inaugural conference of the 16th Pan-American Colloquium on Nursing Research attended by delegates from 21 countries.
This means that Cuba currently has 85,128 nurses scattered throughout the national territory, said the headline.
The training, improvement and specialization of these personnel is materialized in the 13 Cuban medical science universities, based on a novel academic plan, he said.
With the creation of the family doctor program in the 1980s, nursing work was a distinctive element in achieving the objective that led Cuba to meet the goals set forth in the Declaration of Alma-Ata, the specialist said.
According to Portal, nursing professionals in primary care address health problems based on scientific methods and ethical principles that allow them to provide a quality service for the well-being of the entire population.
From the clinic they participate in the dispensarization process, plan the care of the healthy person, at risk, sick and disabled, while doing actions to achieve healthy attitudes and practices with community and intersectorial participation, he said.
The official recognized the Cuban training model, which has allowed graduating hundreds of thousands of nursing professionals with solid knowledge and a scientific and human approach, capable of efficiently solving health problems.
These results are the product of a unique health system, which is characterized by being universal, free and accessible, based on the principles of solidarity and internationalism.
About the presence in other corners of the planet, he pointed out that currently 36,000 collaborators work in 66 countries and of them 5,930 belong to the nursing activity.
Portal ratified Cuba’s commitment to continue strengthening our national system as part of efforts to achieve universal health.
The Declaration of Alma-Ata in 1978 defined primary care as an essential strategy for achieving health for all.