Training and practice of nurses for Primary Health Care – advances, challenges, and strategies to strengthen the Unified Health System

Abstract

To achieve the Sustainable Development Goals until 2030, investment in human resources for health is one of the essential components. However, the formation of those resources requires a balance between the  supply, the demand, and the ability of professionals to meet health care needs. Primary Health Care (PHC) is  the internationally supported strategy as the central and guiding element of policies that strengthen the  health system. Celebrating 40 years of Alma Ata and  30 years of Brazil’s Unified Health System, this article  revisits the recent history and emphasizes the  professional nurse with a central role for the  consolidation of PHC, especially by its innovative,  creative, and versatile potential. Organized in three axes, the text addresses the expansion of nursing in  the last decades, the investment in expanding schools for training nurses, and ends with the challenges of  nursing practices focused on PHC and potential coping and improvement strategies, to ensure a  future already present in the care of individuals and  populations.