INVITE EDITORIAL

Production of scientific knowledge in nursing in the area of women's health

Valdecyr Herdy Alves¹

¹Fluminense Federal University

ABSTRACT
The care of the health of women is a huge challenge for users, health professionals and the Health System (SUS, in Portuguese). The production of scientific knowledge in nursing, focusing on the area of women's health, contributes to the provision of care grounded in scientific evidence. In this way, clinical practice can place an emphasis on actions that guide the context of women's health services, in terms of the technical actions of health professionals in the field of good practice. However, an attentive and careful observation allows us to realize that this improved degree of care requires constant improvement in the technical and scientific capabilities of nursing staff in order to cope with new technologies. The correct use of such technologies will contribute to the quality of care to which women are entitled. It is therefore the duty of nursing professionals to attend to such needs by taking advantage of the knowledge acquired during their training, and also in their everyday professional lives.
Descriptors: Nursing; Women's Health; Unified Health System

Nursing care, guided by evidence-based clinical practice, focuses on women's health without damage or risk, providing respect for nature and for physiological aspects.  In this way it reduces maternal and neonatal mortality, as well as increases female autonomy⁽¹⁾. The purpose and strategies that aim to strengthen clinical practices has been adopted successfully in countries whose health systems are universal, such as the UK and Canada. In these countries, the National Institute for Health and Excellence (NICE) acts upon the recommendations and with the broad support of the World Health Organization, aiming to support health professionals, managers and users, with clinical guidelines to support the quality of care. It is, therefore, a successful international model of care which is attracting the attention of the Ministry of Health of Brazil, in order to enable a proposal to create a model equivalent to NICE for deployment in the SUS care network, benefiting those who work in it and those who use it.

Brazilian nursing, with a legal basis for professional practice, must pay attention to the fact that the production and dissemination of knowledge translates the valoration of support in terms of women's health with a focus on the ethics, skills and competences of its professionals, positively supporting initiatives in the field of rights to human health⁽²⁾. The principles of universality, comprehensiveness and equity in terms of healthcare can be achieved only by strengthening the SUS, based on a constitutional framework of respect and the protection of human rights^(3,4,5). With regard to the results of scientific research in nursing, emphasis is given to reflection, discussion and the guidelines for care practice and service management in the area of women's health⁽⁶⁾. Thus, the analysis of knowledge production in nursing care for women, combined with health promotion, prevention and healthcare, indicates and reinforces the implementation of protocols that are essential to ensuring the quality of clinical care guidelines.

In this sense, the Stork Network Strategy (Estratégia Rede Cegonha, in Portuguese) articulates the network of healthcare for women, validating these protocols and collaborative clinical guidelines, understanding them as training strategies guided by best practice. Protocols and guidelines, in turn, ensure that nurses perform basic actions such as nursing consultations in terms of women's health, childbirth care and birth, and assistance in the field of sexual and reproductive rights⁽⁷⁾.

It is necessary, however, to reflect on the subject under consideration: how we use the scientific knowledge produced by the Brazilian nursing establishment in healthcare practice? Is important to recognize that the relationship between practice and knowledge has benefited the expertise of nurses, i.e., has led to the development of its theoretical basis and practice, with a view to evidence-based care. In this scenario, we highlight significant achievements with regard to the expansion of knowledge and technological advances in healthcare and nursing, in particular⁽⁸⁾.

However, in the context of advances in healthcare, it is essential to reflect on how to strengthen ways to link them to the ethical-political stance of the “people who care for us", idea that configures science and the art of making / be nursing. As an immediate measure to improve the profession, and also to extend its visibility, it is essential to cherish and disseminate the knowledge produced by the nursing profession, in order to increasingly qualify the careful, that is the object of the profession⁽⁸⁾.

The importance of scientific research and its extension is worth noting as part of quality teaching at the undergraduate level; and in the post-graduate scenario, the encouragement of the production of research focused on nursing commitment with regard to the quality of life and health, i.e. the applicability of their results in care practice, especially with regard to the most vulnerable population groups⁽⁹⁾.

In this sense, the production and dissemination of knowledge is fundamental, requiring efforts to strengthen the output of scientific journals, and of the events promoted by scientific associations and through international exchange. Therefore, initiatives such as the one currently being undertaken by the Online Brazilian Journal of Nursing are valuable, and should serve as an example, because they allow the consideration of relevant issues in healthcare terms, especially with regard to the area of women's health.

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Received: 10/12/2013
Approved: 11/12/2013