Havana - The 16th Pan-American Nursing Research Colloquium opens in Havana on Tuesday with the assistance of delegates from 21 countries with the aim of socializing the work to improve the quality of care.

The largest delegations come from Brazil and Mexico, the president of the organizing committee, Idalmis Infante, told the press.

Representation from Spain, Portugal, Canada, the United States, Venezuela, Chile, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, El Salvador and Uruguay, among other nations, are also on the list, she said.

Cuba was chosen by the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) to celebrate this event as a primary healthcare model, Infante stated.

During the event, whose main issue is 'Contribution of nursing to achieve universal health', about 815 works will be discussed until Friday, 610 of them in free issues and 190 in poster, the chairman of the scientific committee, Lazaro Hernandez, she said.

The modalities in which the scientific activities will be presented are: lectures, roundtable discussions and panels, she said.

Prior to the event, about 18 international workshops were held at Havana's Conference Center, the main headquarters of the Colloquium, the Ibero-American Center for the Third Age (CITED) and the 'Frank Pais' Hospital.

The forum is a biennial meeting of professional nursing in the region of the Americas that has spread to many parts of the world supported by PAHO and the PAHO-WHO Nursing and Midwifery Collaborating Centers, the organizers said.