Cuba among the countries with the best nursing indicators

HAVANA, Cuba, May 13 (ACN) Cuba is one of the countries in the world with the highest number of nurses per capita, with 84,977, which means 71.9 per 10,000 inhabitants, and this has allowed it to provide medical assistance from all fronts during the confrontation of the COVID-19 pandemic.

On the occasion of today's International Nurses' Day, Anahy Velázquez Aznar, head of that department in the Ministry of Public Health, told ACN that in the last year these health personnel have shown their dedication and effort in primary health care, PCR sampling, case detection, traveler
surveillance, in the red zones, in the medical brigades of the Henry Reeve Contingent and in clinical trials and interventions with vaccine candidates.

These have been months of much learning and, as an example, she mentioned that 16,531 nurses intervened in the care of the serious cases in red zones throughout the country, and 12,314 in the primary health care processes.

In the brigades of the International Contingent of Doctors Specialized in Disaster Situations and Serious Epidemics "Henry Reeve", 2,446 Cuban nurses have been involved, which represents more than 40 percent of the collaborators of the 57 brigades that provided assistance in 40 countries, she said.

Nursing teams were also created to attend patients in Havana, Matanzas, Granma, Santiago de Cuba and Guantánamo, in response to the demand generated by the increase in cases of the new coronavirus in those provinces.

Velázquez Aznar said that to this work was added the immunization with the Cuban anti-COVID-19 vaccine candidates, in which the nursing staff is responsible for putting into practice the efforts of our scientists, since the results of the research go through their hands, based on the certification of each one of them and their wide experience in the application of vaccines.

On this International Nursing Day, a date chosen to commemorate the birth of Florence Nightingale, founder of modern nursing, there are many challenges in terms of cutting the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and reinforcing epidemiological surveillance to minimize complications in positive cases and reduce deaths caused by the virus, he said.

It is also necessary to strengthen specialization, for which specialties such as pediatric and neonatal nursing, gynecobstetrics, general-integral and acute and emergency care have been revitalized, and oncology and geriatric nursing has been approved.
However, currently in the country there are around 6,000 specialists in urgent and emergency, community and maternal and child nursing, she said.

Similarly, Velázquez Aznar stressed the importance of strengthening work in primary health care, especially in family doctor and nurse practitioners' offices, based on the rescue of the founding concepts of this program, which concentrates around 40 percent of this personnel in the country.
Professional improvement should be achieved in a shorter period of time without degrading quality, but rather it requires young and competent workers, she said.

In Cuba, the National Nursing Day will be held from today until June 3, when the Cuban Nursing Day will be commemorated, as it is the birthday of Victoria Brú Sánchez, who stood out as a nurse and gave her life in the fulfillment of her duty during the Spanish flu epidemic in Cuba.
During these days, conferences and virtual events will be held to exchange information on vaccination, international collaboration, care for seriously ill patients and nursing care.