Advanced Practice Nursing (APN), a trend that began approximately 60 years ago in the United States and Canada as a strategy to increase access to health services and health coverage ^1,2; to reduce health costs ³ and mortality ⁴; shows an increase in its use in the world's healthcare systems. In our country, the history of the APN is very recent; in fact, the Permanent Nursing Commission of the Ministry of Health in Mexico is working on the legal figure of the advanced practice nurse, since it does not yet exist in the Mexican health system; therefore, the work areas in which advanced practice nurses can work has to be defined ^1,5.

The International Council of Nurses (ICN) has defined the APN as a nurse who has achieved an expert knowledge base, who has complex clinical decision-making skills and has developed competencies to exercise an extended role; characteristics that should be profiled and consolidated according to the context of the country in which she has been recognized to practice professionally; master's degree ^6,7 is considered de minimum preparation level. ICN points out that the nature of advanced practice in nursing integrates four global axes, in which APN professionals shall be trained, even to an expert level such as research, education, clinical practice and management. This implies a high level of autonomy and independence in professional practice, management of users using advanced clinical skills such as assessment, diagnostic reasoning and decision making; offering consultancy, advice and training to health care providers (nursing colleagues, physicians, students), as well as designing, implementing, evaluating health plans and programs and being the first contact for users and their families ⁸.

The training of APN in Mexico is a fact. The expected results are to increase access to health services and expand health coverage. However, it should be recognized that the impact will not be immediate. Although, the training of APNs is the beginning for the implementation of this movement in Latin America, so its fulfilment cannot be focused exclusively on the training of competencies to be developed by the APNs, since there are legal, organizational, educational and institutional aspects that must be analyzed.

Strengthening the social responsibility that higher education institutions have, the Department of Nursing at the University of Sonora, located in northwestern Mexico, has made a great effort to contribute to the formation of a new nursing, that is to say, one that allows nurses to play a new role (expanded or extended or expert) in the health system, based on a scientific support that evidences effectiveness and efficiency ⁸, demonstrating a leadership role of nurses in the transformation of nursing care at the levels of care where it is performed, mainly at the first level, with a specific perspective in universal health coverage, considering the objectives of sustainable development and training of health human resources ^9,10. For this reason, starting in August 2023, the Master's Degree in Advanced Practice Nursing will be offered at the university. The main objective is to contribute with health coverage to the largest possible population, regardless of the regions where they live, the distances that the patient must travel or the social class to which they belong. This becomes a great challenge in professional education by contributing to the formation of expert nursing human resources, in this way the health of the region will be strengthened.