Revista de Enfermagem Comunitária e de Saúde Pública

Abstrato

The Future of Nursing: Assumption of New Roles and Responsibilities

Carlos Alberto Díaz and Rodrigo Alberto Castilla

At present, we are facing a conflictive incoherence between the importance of nursing as a profession, and the social-institutional-political-organisational-economic recognition the nurses actually receive, in spite of the academic improvement. This dilemma seems to be caused by the absence of health as a whole in the political agenda, the health’s system fragmentation, low salaries, lack of collective bargaining, and other sociocultural factors. The future of nursing will be based in management. Professional spaces will need to be amplified; new skills and competencies will need to be developed. Leadership, communication, efficiency, should be key factors. Finally, there will not be any future without professional growth and long-term careers, and an improvement of work conditions and economic remuneration.