One hand washes the other. The two together build a better world.

Rehabilitation nursing in Brazil is already recognized by the Federal Nursing Council - COFEN, equivalent to the Portuguese Nurses Association. The plenary session of counselors held on April 25, 2023 unanimously decided to create this specialty and to draw up a draft of the additional competencies, to be voted on at a later date.

The specialty is recognized after a few years of isolated articulations between Brazilian nurses working in the area and nurses from other countries whose specialties already exist. Of great importance is the partnership built and consolidated with our Portuguese colleagues, especially via the Portuguese Association of Rehabilitation Nurses - APER.

This partnership, even though it began before 2013, began to be consolidated after an invitation to participate in a Seminar held at the Escola Superior de Enfermagem, under the coordination of professors Bárbara Gomes and Maria Manuela Martins. The president of the APER was nurse Isabel Ribeiro.

From then on, nurses from Portugal and Brazil held several meetings together, sharing research, knowledge, and actions. The participation of Brazilian nurses in the APER congresses; the carrying out of research and joint guidance of nurses in master's degrees, doctorates and post-doctoral internships on the subject of rehabilitation are some examples. Also the participation of Portuguese nurses and APER in Seminars of Rehabilitation Nursing held in Brazil - Florianópolis and São Paulo. The established partnership is technical, political, and knowledge-building in nursing care and rehabilitation nursing.

We have many fruits of this union. We will have many more. Together we are building the history of rehabilitation nursing. We are currently validating a medium-range nursing theory, entitled Rehabilitation Nursing for Good Living, led by nurses from both countries.

Our path is long. We learned a lot from you. We still have a lot to learn. A lot we can share. We highly value and are proud of this partnership.

Eternal gratitude

As our eternal singer Raul Seixas says...

“The dream that one dreams is just a dream that one dreams alone...

But a dream that you dream together is a reality”.