The Health Network has adopted strategies to promote circulation and exchange of information, share experiences, collaborate on activities and projects, learn collectively, strengthen ties, and, above all, broaden the decision-making power of its members. These new forms of social organization are based on autonomous, non-hierarchical, and decentralized cooperation and collaboration among the participants, with intensive use of production technologies and information dissemination.
The Nursing Networks seek to expand their actions to defend global, regional, and local health policies and strengthen communication, linking, cooperation, and synergy strategies among people, institutions, and organizations who are interested in developing attention, management, research, information, and education in Nursing.
Currently, the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) coordinates 25 International Nursing Networks in the Americas. Overall, they compose the EnfAmericas Network which was created more than seven years ago. Information on each of these networks is available on the internet at <http://www.observatoriorh.org/?q=node/562>.
The International Network for Communication in Nursing (ReCEn) is among them and has fulfilled the role of broadening access to scientific information and promoting the exchange of experiences. Messages sent through the ReCEn are available on websites (http://listserv.paho.org/ archives/enfamericas.html), Facebook (https://es-la.facebook.com/ enfamericas), and Twitter (@EnfAmericas). Currently, many nurses exchange messages through e-mail, interact through Facebook, and follow through Twitter (more than 3150, 900, and 590, respectively). Therefore, there is a wide network of people in the Americas, making connections to share common interests such as nursing issues.
Thus, providing updated scientific information that favor integration between nurses and development of the profession is our goal. These are also the main priorities of the Unit for Human Resources in Health at PAHO/WHO.
However, we emphasize that the strength of the networks depends on each of their nodes, especially on their ability to articulate and collaborate. We hope that more people participate actively and collaborate using the EnfAmericas Network!
Cristianne Maria Famer Rocha
Professor at the Escola de Enfermagem, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (Eenf/UFRGS).
Silvia Cassiani
Regional Advisor for Nurses and Health Techniques and member of the OPAS/OMS staff. She is responsible for the view expressed above, which does not necessarily represent the decisions or policies the PAHO/WHO.
Publication Dates
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Publication in this collection
July-Aug 2015
