Role of the National Association of Nurses of Colombia, ANEC
In the Development of the Profession
Background
In our country, the Nursing Profession arises from the need to have a group of qualified people to participate with doctors in health care, taking as an example the experience in this field in Europe, the United States and Canada. Consequently, the first School for Nurses was created in 1903, at the University of Cartagena, followed in order by the National University, in 1920, the School of the Colombian Red Cross in 1938 and the Javeriana University in 1941.
In accordance with the development of higher education in the country, the training programs for nursing professionals amount to 35 with coverage of most of the national territory. Approximately 800 nurses graduate from these institutions each year. Likewise, these academic units have been developing postgraduate education programs in all clinical and community specialties and this year the first doctoral program in nursing began.
The ANEC was created in 1935 in the city of Bogotá, by a group of nurse leaders, who were threatened with losing their jobs to be replaced by a foreign religious community. On the recommendation of the Municipal Director of Hygiene, to whom the respective claim was presented, the National Association of Visiting Nurses was founded, as a union and union organization.
We highlight the importance that this fact had for the nurses of the time, who, as workers, broke with the feminine tradition of the time, which assigned them exclusively to marriage and the home, excluding them from all public functions, considering them minors. age. Despite these circumstances, they became the first women’s Association of this type in the country and also the first union organization in the health sector.
Its main actions were initially aimed at regularizing the work of nurses and improving the quality of their education every day, managing to position it as a professional career of the highest academic qualities, caring for the health of the community. The function of quality control of the training of nursing professionals has been assumed for some years by the Colombian Association of Nursing Faculties, ACOFAEN.
During its 67 years of life, the Association has become the most representative Organization of Colombian Nursing, highlighting among its main achievements in the social, union, union and scientific fields, the following:
• Development of national and regional collective bargaining processes to defend the living and working conditions of nurses.
• Preparation and processing before the Congress of the Republic and achievement of the approval of Law 266 of 1996, through which the Nursing Profession was regulated in the country, which established the legal bases for self-regulation, direction and control. of the Profession
• Representation of nursing professionals before governmental and non-governmental entities • Continuing education, development of media and information
• Promotion of relationships with other national and international organizations in the sector.
Main Areas of Intervention
1. Organization Development
• Presence of the Association in 22 departments of the country.
• Development of the logistics and administrative structure at the national and sectional levels.
• Execution of a National Action Plan that facilitates unity of criteria and a comprehensive vision of the Association
• Operation of commissions of specialist nurses for the different areas of professional practice, being a pioneer the Occupational Health Commission, which has been operating at the national and sectional level.
• Participation in the National Union of Social Security Workers, SINTRASEGURIDADSOCIAL, of which 11 union and trade union organizations of workers of the Social Security Institute are part.
• Development of projects to promote occupational health of nursing staff, with resources from the Professional Risk Fund of the Ministry of Labor and Social Security.
• Development of the mutual support agreement with the Solidarity Assistance Fund for demands of professional practice, FEPASDE, of the Colombian Society of Anesthesiology, SCARE.
2. Socio-labor aspects
• Development of the collective bargaining process of the ISS, representing the nurses of the Institute and signing of the National Pact for the strengthening of the Company
• Development of collective bargaining processes in different healthcare and educational institutions, at the sectional and national level.
• Participation in actions called by the National Unitary Command of the country’s union and social organizations in defense of the interests of workers and the nation • Legal advice on labor, ethical and disciplinary aspects that affect nurses
• Coordination with the Ministry of Labor and Social Security of the ratification by the Congress of the Republic of Convention 149 of the ILO on Employment, Living and Working Conditions of Nursing Personnel
• Coordination with the PAHO Regional Office and the Ministry of Health to comply with Resolution WH.45 of 1992, issued by the World Health Assembly on Strengthening Nursing.
• Participation in all movements that promote the construction of a Comprehensive Social Security System for all Colombians.
3. Self-regulation of the Nursing Profession
• Dissemination of Law 266/96 on professional practice in all interested groups
• Execution of the Single National Nursing Registry, RUN, as a responsibility granted to the ANEC, by the Nursing Law
• Development of a benefits plan for registered nurses, consisting of free delivery of the ANEC Magazine, access to the Association’s Documentation and Information Center and to the educational programs developed by the Organization.
• Execution of the computer program with the data collected from the issuance of the Single National Nursing Registry, RUN.
• Participation in all regulatory activities of Law 266/96
• Participation in the National and Departmental Nursing Technical Councils on behalf of the ANEC
• Coordination with the Ministry of Health in all aspects related to the application of Law 266 of 1996.
4. Research, dissemination and continuing education
• Execution of socio-labor investigations related to the living and working conditions of nurses, at the national and regional levels, seeking information that supports the necessary elements to defend them before institutions and government entities.
• Development of continuing education activities on different topics of scientific, union and union, national and regional interest.
• Holding the National Nursing Congress, every two years, a union, union and scientific event, with a great capacity to attract nurses from all over the country.
• Quarterly edition of ANEC Magazine, with national and international coverage and the main means of communication for Colombian nurses
• Information about the Association and the situation of national and international nursing, through the website: www.anec.org.co
• Service of the ANEC Documentation and Information Center, ANECENDI, which concentrates textual documentation, related to the development of nursing in the country and in the world, and the issues associated with the socio-labor relations of Colombian nursing.
• Coordination with ACOFAEN and the Nursing Faculties, nursing education policies and professional development.
5. International Relations
• Active member of the International Council of Nurses CIE, which brings together 130 nursing associations from around the world and represents them before entities.
international organizations related to Health, Work and other similar professional organizations.
• Active member of the Pan American Federation of Nursing Professionals, FEPPEN, which integrates the Nursing associations of Latin America and the Caribbean.
• Participation in the Ibero-American Nursing Foundation, FIDE, a non-governmental organization, aimed at obtaining resources and developing programs to strengthen nursing in Latin America, Spain and Portugal.
• Participation in academic and statutory events convened by the organizations mentioned above.
• Development of projects to strengthen the Association and Colombian nursing, among others the following:
– International Classification of Nursing Practice, CIPE, a program aimed at building a universal language on nursing interventions, its Spanish version is available in the ANEC Documentation Center.
– Leadership for change, a project that was developed in the country in coordination with the Nursing Faculties and formed a group of nurse leaders to understand the changes that have occurred in the world and clarify their role with an ethical and social sense.
– Leadership through negotiation, has been forming a group of leaders of the Association in the development of management and negotiation skills, in the labor and Government environment.
Beatriz Carvallo Suarez
President – National Board of Directors – ANEC
Correspondence: www.anec.org.co
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