International Nursing Day.

By Roberto Morejón

Nursing is a service profession, in charge of providing care to people of all ages, hence the high valuation in Cuba to that specialty, and the recognition beyond borders, as confirmed in a recent agreement with Bahamas.

A group of the Henry Reed International Contingent of Doctors Specialized in Situations of Disasters and Serious Epidemics, essentially made up of Cuban nurses, will be working in the Bahamas.

It is not the only Caribbean country where Cuban nurses have been deployed, and in this regard they can speak of their excellent performance in Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, among others.

With almost eight nurses per 1,000 inhabitants, Cuba stands out in Latin America and the Caribbean for the practice of that community to meet the requirements of such assistance. 

The availability of nurses is much lower in Haiti, Jamaica, Honduras and Guatemala, to name just a few countries.

On average, in the region south of the Rio Grande there are less than three nurses per thousand inhabitants, three times less in comparison with developed nations.

Cuba has more than 85,000 nurses, dedicated to all health institutions and levels of care, with priority given to primary care, where 54 percent of them are located.

There, they can be found in the doctor's offices and in their work of prophylaxis in the field, accompanied or not by a doctor.

Both for their work in the red zone during the Covid-19 crisis, in polyclinics and in neighborhoods and rural communities, this type of professional receives well-deserved recognition in this Caribbean nation.

They were at the forefront in the colossal day of vaccination with their own injectables, a process now extended to 87 percent of the population.

As expressed by experts and citizens in general when talking about this type of healthcare performers, their noble quality to face or alleviate patients' pain and mishaps stands out.

Their humanism and ethics are put to the test both in Cuba and abroad, given the altruistic vocation of local medicine, a policy that favors placing nurses alongside doctors in Africa, the Caribbean or Latin America.

To help heal people with health problems, Cuban nurses go to other countries, in a strictly voluntary gesture of dedication, which the country is honored for.