Training and practice of nurses for Primary Health Care - advances, challenges, and strategies to strengthen the Unified Health System

ABSTRACT To achieve the Sustainable Development Goals until 2030, investment in human resources for health is one of the essential components. However, the formation of those resources requires a balance between the supply, the demand, and the ability of professionals to meet health care needs. Primary Health Care (PHC) is the internationally supported strategy as the central and guiding element of policies that strengthen the health system. Celebrating 40 years of Alma Ata and 30 years of Brazil's Unified Health System, this article revisits the recent history and emphasizes the professional nurse with a central role for the consolidation of PHC, especially by its innovative, creative, and versatile potential. The elements explored here are results of debates carried out by the PHS Research Network and reinforce the importance of building a strategic political agenda facing the challenges present in the national and international scenario, reaffirming the defense of public health and education. Organized in three axes, the text addresses the expansion of nursing in the last decades, the investment in expanding schools for training nurses, and ends with the challenges of nursing practices focused on PHC and potential coping and improvement strategies, to ensure a future already present in the care of individuals and populations.