Rev. Soc. Bras. Enferm. Ped.2025;25:e-edt1.
Nursing advocacy: defending neonates, children, and adolescents in contemporary care
DOI: 10.31508/1676-379320250001edti
In contemporary nursing care, the scientific understanding of the importance of protecting neonates, children, and adolescents is indisputable. This recognition stems from historical achievements that have enabled the acknowledgment of this population as rights-holders. Brazil’s 1988 Federal Constitution, the 1990 Statute of the Child and Adolescent, and the 1995 Resolution on the Rights of Hospitalized Children represent national regulatory milestones that transformed perspectives on childhood. In the following years, new initiatives sought to strengthen these guarantees and introduced emerging issues to the protection agenda, such as the Early Childhood Law (2016), the Protege Brasil Program (2022), and the recognition of positive parenting and play as fundamental strategies for violence prevention (2024). Despite these advances, numerous challenges remain in translating these achievements into clinical practice, requiring ongoing efforts to ensure their implementation.
Within this context, the concept of health advocacy emerges, understood as a set of ethical, social, economic, educational, and political strategies aimed at defending and protecting rights. These actions aim to strengthen leadership and public policies, resulting in care that respects neonates, children, and adolescents, and that prioritize their needs. Health advocacy can occur at various levels: individual, through actions targeting specific populations; community, by impacting collective settings; organizational, by promoting administrative changes; and governmental, by contributing to the development of legislation and public policies. Healthcare professionals’ involvement in this field is vital to advancing contemporary care.
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