This paper presents a reflection on the main tendencies of humanity in the globalized world. This study analyzes globalization and its social and environmental consequences, highlighting inequity and the lack of care as principal impacts upon the planetary society. We indicate their effects on health care and the opportunities that globalization opens for them. The role of care in human existence is analyzed and its condition as the subject of study and intervention in the field of nursing. The developmental tendencies in the nursing profession are characterized in a double process of exchange. Implications of globalization for the transformation of nursing care and new challenges for the future are pointed out, proposing nursing as art, science, philosophy, ethics and policy of human care.
Nursing care; Health policy; World health; Science, tecnology and society