The sanitary movement brought about, in the educational setting, demands for health training focused on primary care, considering the inconsistency between professional practice and population health needs. This is a documental research with the objective to identify human resources development policies in National and Health Human Resources Conferences, in the period from 1986 to 2005. Results show that the debate concerning nursing education is presented in the following categories: legal landmarks in nursing education; curricular dimension of health education; perspectives of teaching-learning methods; and health human resources training. This course of debate shows the current path that different education instances should trail.
Health policy; planning and management; Public health; Health man power; Nursing