RETS - Rede Internacional de Educação de Técnicos em Saúde

Technical workers represent a significant portion of the healthcare workforce, their qualification being a fundamental dimension of public policies that aim to meet the health needs of their populations. In order to systematize and socialize knowledge that subsidizes the development of international cooperation policies, favoring the discussion and sharing of experiences and demands relative to the training of health technicians, the International Network for the Education of Health Technicians (RETS) was created.

The idea for RETS came about in 1996, arising out of two meetings organized by the Human Resources Program of the Pan American Health Organization (OPS). In its first five years of operation, it encompassed countries only in the Americas region, and the School of Public Health of Costa Rica was its executive secretary. Recommenced in 2005 by an OPS initiative, the Network switched its executive secretary to the Joaquim Venâncio Polytechnical School of Health (EPSJV), the techno-scientific branch of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation in Brazil, and the Collaborating Center of the World Health Organization (WHO) for the Education of Health Technicians. In this new phase, RETS took on the challenge of expanding its geographical area of activity by incorporating all the countries that identified needs for cooperation.

The launch of this publication, collectively identified as one of the chief strategies articulated by the Network, seeks to increase the production and dissemination of information and knowledge by addressing issues that are important for the challenges of a type of training that recognizes the complexity of the work of the health technician and focuses on the quality of public healthcare.

In this edition, published in Portuguese, Spanish and English, we focus on the discussion of the social determinants of healthcare, which was the subject of a recent WHO study. In addition, we consider the different conceptions of technical cooperation, narrate the experience of the Mozambique Medical Journal, and present a summary of the report on Primary Healthcare. In the  interviews section, Khaled Bessaoud discusses the challenges of training workers in Africa. Additionally, we include news about the institutions that comprise RETS.

Enjoy your reading!

RETS Executive Secretariat