RETS - Rede Internacional de Educação de Técnicos em Saúde

It is with great joy that we publish this edition of RETS magazine, number 14, and resume contact with our readers. Unfortunately, some operational problems prevented the compliance with our quarterly basis and we could not publish the magazine’s editions of June and September. Now, with the arrival of another journalist, Elisandra Galvão, and a new intern, Michele Corrêa, the team is bigger and in a better position to provide a good service to all those who are interested in issues related to education and the work of healthcare technical workers.

In this magazine we bring some important topics and some news. The cover story is about the II International Seminar on ‘Health Technical Workers Education in the MERCOSUL’. The event, repeating its first release success, four year ago, showed some of the progress that has happened in this field, however small, and brought some proposals for the expansion of research on the topic.

As a successful experience, we present, in collaboration with the journalist Yesmin Tibocha Patiño, an important initiative Learning National Service (Sena), from Colombia, that works on the issue of intercultural training for child care workers in indigenous communities.

The big news is the release of the section ‘Healthcare Technicians in the world’, created with the intention of presenting, in each edition of the Magazine, a brief overview of health professionals education in the countries represented on the Network, as well as disseminating aspects of these technicians training and work, giving them greater visibility and highlighting the important role they play in national health systems.

We also bring a small article about the new action strategy from 2013 to 2016 of the Global Health Workforce Alliance (GHWA), whose title is ‘Promote the agenda of health workforce toward universal coverage’. Finally, tips about publications and websites that are worth exploring and some small notes on Network or on cooperative actions among its members. May this be a good start, and that our energies are renewed for the coming year.

Happy reading and happy 2013 to all!

Executive Secretariat