EDITORIAL

Reflecting upon what we are commemorating on "Nurses' Day 2013" is a thought-provoking question. The date of May 12 is internationally considered to be the "day of the nurse," by the "International Council of Nurses." In Brazil we commemorate Nurses' Week instituted by Decree No. 48.202 of May 12, 1960, awarded by the Brazilian President, Juscelino Kubitschek, which established a "nurses' week" in honor of, respectively, the birth of Florence Nightingale on May 12, 1820 and, the death of Anna Nery on May 20, 1880.

Throughout history, Brazilian nursing has been stimulated by several issues, including: neoliberal policies, capital interests and dominant social classes; the search to numerically expand its staff of professionals. Nursing, grounded in a dominant discourse, pointed out that it was necessary to increase the number of professionals so that we could improve the performance and representativeness of nursing in Brazil. Calculated upon this ideology, we arrived to the numbers of today.

In April of 2013 we totaled 403,000 nursing professionals, registered in the State of São Paulo, and 90,000 of these were nurses; in 2010 we had 73,000 nurses . At the moment the number of technicians and nursing assistants in the state totals 310,000 professionals. In three years, 20,000 nurses graduated in the state of São Paulo. What do these numbers represent to the increase in quality professional practice?

This year the theme of the 74th Brazilian Nurses' Week, promoted by the Brazilian Nursing Association (ABEn), deals with the theme: "Professional consciousness and nursing in life care."

Seeking a balanced relationship between the framework for training from the qualitative and quantitative standpoint, it is proposed that we should promote the "nurses' weeks" to come. In this process we will diminish errors, we will improve the professional conscientiousness, and without any doubt, the care of the human life, the biggest inspiration of nursing professionals.

Mauro Antônio Pires Dias da Silva

President of the Regional Council of Nursing (COREN) - São Paulo

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  27 May 2013
• Date of issue
  2013