Nursing Services in the First Level of Care in Colombia. Analysis of the Offer 2002-2020

OBJECTIVE. This work sought to characterize the primary care nursing consultation services reported in the official systems of health services records in Colombia between 2002 and 2020. METHODS. This was a descriptive, cross-sectional, retrospective study. Node geographic analysis and descriptive statistics were performed for quantitative data from the Special Registry of Health Providers and the Ministry of Health and Social Protection. RESULTS. The study identified 6079 nursing services of which 72% are outpatient, 95.05% are assigned to institutions providing health services, 99.75% are of low complexity, and 48.22% of the offer was created in the last five years. The nodes with the highest increase in the offer of services are Caribbean (n = 909) and Pacific (n = 499), while Amazon (n = 48) showed the lowest offer in the last five years. CONCLUSIONS. Disparity is evident in the availability of services by region and node, in addition to a low liberal exercise to provide nursing care.