Trabalho, Educação e Saúde - TES (Work, Education and Health) is an open access scientific journal, edited by the Joaquim Venâncio Polytechnic School of Health, from Oswaldo Cruz Foundation.
Editorial
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Article
This is a qualitative, exploratory, and descriptive study carried out in a rural settlement of the Landless Rural Workers' Movement in the mid-western region of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. It aims to present and discuss the views settled women have with regard to the work done within the settlement, addressing implications for women's health. The data were gathered in 2011 through semi-structured interviews conducted among nine women living in the settlement. Based on the analysis of the theme, the results indicated that the work done by settled women is broad and not always recognized. With regard to health, it was found that female settled citizens are exposed to vulnerabilities, because they live in an area where work is eminently manual and are exposed to the weather and other instabilities of nature. Another finding is the expansion of women's space of participation in the family business, including specific credit lines for female farmers, factors contributing to the emancipation of women. Therefore, it seems relevant to join efforts to expand actions that support the development of comprehensive public policies to address the reality of the context in which these women are located.
Article
This study uses a theoretical model and an empirical model based on finite difference and linear regression equations to analyze trends in the supplementary health insurance market in Brazil. The resolution of the finite difference equation model generates three possible scenarios for the market: in the first, there would be infinite growth of resources available in the industry; in the second, there would be stability, given the complementarity of the sum of the expense of the fraction with a fraction of the profit, both calculated on revenue: the resources available in the industry would be around the amount of the initial contribution paid by individuals, estimated based on linear regression; finally, in the third scenario, the system would be led to exhaustion. The results show that the system is sustainable over the long term.
Article
This article seeks to reflect on the use of participatory methodologies in the continuing education of community/health workers, in a discussion about the limits and possibilities of such methodologies, encouraging reflections and possible changes in these professionals’ daily practices. Transect interviews and walks were carried out with the agents, which resulted in the rapporteurs that used as material for analyses. It would be no simple task to measure the impact that this methodology has on the process of building reflective thought, but the analysis of the potential of participatory methodologies in the training activities aimed at community health workers allowed us to realize that there was empowerment with regard to the themes addressed. It was possible to understand how significant the methodologies have shown to be in addressing the issues, especially with regard to the ‘prevention of disease and promotion of health’ and to ‘gender violence.’ In sum, the fact that something can be realized with other meanings and senses allows other modes of production of daily practices.
Article
The purpose of this article is to discuss the role continuing education in health plays as a friendly evaluative practice for completeness in the daily life of health services, as well as its influence in changing the family health teams’ working process. It is based on the experience of the municipality of Teresópolis, state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 2007 and 2008. A qualitative survey with a descriptive approach was conducted. The theoretical basis consisted of a review of the literature, of the analysis of official documents, minutes of the meetings of the facilitators with the coordinator of the group, and the minutes of the Bipartite Inter-Management Commission. The field of observation consisted of a semi-structured interview with the group of facilitators. To analyze the interviews and minutes, we opted for content analysis and compared the sources as an efficient proof of validation. It was noticed that professionals still find it hard to recognize instruments other than the official ones as assessment tools. However, in Teresópolis, the practice of continuing education was able to promote changes in the labor process, enabling critical and reflective training among current and future health professionals, strengthening social participation and bring management closer to the local health issues, thus proving that a friendly evaluative practice can be considered for completeness.
Article
The purpose of this article was to identify the education proposals in the hospital environment, their implementation directed to chronically ill children and adolescents, and to understand their perception about their schooling in this environment. A survey was carried out at a pediatric referral hospital in Fortaleza, state of Ceará, Brazil, from March to May 2013, using semi-structured interviews and involving eight children and adolescents hospitalized because of a chronic condition. The data were analyzed and two categories listed: the view hospitalized children and adolescents have of their schooling, and the gap between theory and practice in the education of hospitalized children and adolescents. It was noticed that the sadness emanating during the children and adolescents’ hospitalization, associated with nostalgia and distance from school, with the restrictions imposed by the routines established by the institution, and with patients’ clinical condition generated immense suffering among these youth. Little is done about the education of these subjects, as the recreational and educational activities carried out by health professionals do not meet this need. Therefore, we conclude it is essential that the hospital offer this population educational follow-up, continuing the educational process through classes at the hospital in order to provide comprehensive assistance in view of the prerogatives prescribed by law.
Article
This article is the result of research aimed at understanding how the relationships between standards and renormalizations occur in a hospital in the context of the social division of labor. The subjects were two nurses and four nursing technicians from a hospital located in the Vale do Rio Pardo region, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The methods used to collect data were semi-structured interviews, participant observation, document analysis, and field diaries. As a result, it was possible to understand that health works continuously generate knowledge in their daily work that essential for achieving this. However, such knowledge is not recognized because of the spontaneous nature of its production. In addition, although in prescribed work the division of nursing work foresees rules as to the division of knowledge, in the actual work there are both exchanges and production of knowledge.
Article
This study aims to understand the academy-service integration in nursing education. Qualitative surveys were used and dialectic hermeneutics served as an analytical framework. In all, teachers, nursing assistants, and fourth year nursing students of a Nursing course at a college that has a hospital complex certified as a teaching hospital answered 24 questionnaires. What was found was that there are mingling spaces among the players and that knowledge is built from practice, enabling the development of individual and collective care and of management. The academy-service integration encourages service professionals to seek knowledge and research and contributes to changes in practice and to generating commitment among the students. Difficulties arise from the incompatibility in the agendas of teachers and nurses, from the little involvement of the teacher with the practice, from an overload and lack of preparation among nurses for teaching, over and above from a lack of understanding among the multidisciplinary team about the role played by the teaching hospital. There is a need to adapt the structures and expand opportunities for dialog, with greater involvement and shared decision-making and to qualify the service professional. Furthermore, there is also a need for investments to qualify the teaching and service integration process.
Article
This study aimed to analyze the managerial practice of nurses in the Family Health Strategy. It is a descriptive and exploratory study with a qualitative approach guided by the social phenomenology of Alfred Schütz. A semi-structured interview was conducted to collect data. Study subjects were 11 nurses of family health teams in the city of Conselheiro Lafaiete, state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, in the period ranging from August to November, 2009. The data collected were subjected to content analysis, respecting the ethical principles of research involving human subjects. The results revealed these categories: “The view on work” and “Intervening factors at work.” In the discourse, people management stands out as an important tool that permeates relations among the health team. Regarding hindering factors, professionals have raised issues related to dissatisfaction, experienced in the context of the lack of recognition of the work they do in providing care and management. The strengthening of nursing management action is essential in building a broad, autonomous practice in the context of primary health care.
Article
This study investigates the perception nursing professionals have about teamwork at a Family Health Strategy unit in a municipality in Southern Brazil. The entire nursing team, consisting of two nurses and six nursing technicians, was interviewed in this qualitative survey. Two categories emerged based on the analysis of the data: limits in teamwork, and possibilities for teamwork. The first category showed a few difficulties, such as authoritarian management, political barriers, lack of motivation and recognition, and high levels of staff turnover. In the second, respondents suggested a few possibilities for teamwork, such as knowledge about each team member's skills, effective communication, and team meetings. It is concluded that health managers should come closer to the workers and to the daily work done by these teams in order to give voice to these professionals, promote job satisfaction, and qualify the assistance provided to the population.
Article
Respect for biosafety standards is critical for the provision of safe care, and education in vocational training in health plays a key role in this process. This article is the outcome of an exploratory-descriptive research project that used a qualitative approach to identify how technical education nursing teachers working at institutions linked to the Federal Professional and Technological Education Network in a state in Southern Brazil conceive biosafety. Data were collected through interviews conducted for a one-month period, in 2012, among nursing teachers of two institutions involved in supervised internship activities. The results showed three views on biosafety: as a synonym of personal protective equipment; as protection of those involved in the work; and as safety for life. It was also noted that teachers reproduce what they learned in school and make decisions influenced by scenarios in their practice. It was concluded that teachers understand the importance of adopting safe working practices and that education influences the actions of future professionals; however, a minority of them took the concept of defending life involved in this issue into account.
Article
The knowledge and practices of individuals (re)produce themselves daily based on the intertwining of personal experience with the human and social relations experienced in the various collective spaces. In this regard, schools and health facilities are privileged spaces of action and research. The purpose of this article is to discuss knowledge and practices related to eating habits, central to the crosscutting theme of health, through dialog with education and health professionals of the municipality of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. To achieve this, discussions carried out in the socio-anthropological field of eating were considered. Qualitative research methods were used to enhance the intersubjectivities and meanings the subjects attribute to their own life experiences. Four focus groups were analyzed, which resulted in debates on the social processes related to food, to changes and continuities in food systems, and to the challenges of commensality in the contemporary context. Knowledge on these professionals’ perceptions is useful to develop health education practices that, by exercising transdisciplinary, consider food as a pedagogical element in the construction of knowledge by critical citizens and for a healthy life.
Article
This study is on food consumption in the context of meals provided at school, understanding this space as strongly proactive in forming healthy eating habits and encouraging sustainable development. It reports on the case of the municipality of Dois Irmãos, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, and the actions related to the work done with the students, combining changes in the consumption and production of food and linking health and sustainability with such changes. It uses secondary sources and participant observation. Based on the troubling diagnosis of the food and nutritional status of this population, several activities were developed to promote sustainable food consumption, including a review of the suppliers and supply chains, forms of production and quality of the food offered; regulation of the types of food brought from home; care in formulating menus, and development of practical educational activities that could blend the improvement of eating habits with greater appreciation for the rural area. In this case, a verification was made of examples of innovative practices, developed in an integrated manner, which coordinated food and nutrition education synergistically with actions aimed at the consolidation of a sustainable food system.
Article
This article is a qualitative survey of curricular practices and policies related to medical training. The method used was dialectical historical materialism based on a comparative study of two cases. The sample was intentional, making a cross section of two medical schools: the Catholic University of Goiás (Brazil) and the College of Health Sciences of the University of Beira Interior (Portugal). The overall goal was to compare the curricular policies for medical education in both countries and to analyze the curriculum organization practices prevailing in the two institutions with a view of each country's policies. Philosophically, the study was based on Habermas’ theory of communicative action. The similarities between the two courses remain in the curricular matrix, with teaching-learning focused on the student and on the graduate's profile. The greatest differences appeared in the social inclusion proposal advocated by the Catholic University of Goiás, and in the assumption of research and internationalization of the College of Health Sciences of the University of Beira Interior. It was concluded that there is a need to solidify the current educational projects and to adopt a reflective school with real proposals aiming to gain a glimpse into the possibility of social change in concrete reality.
Ensaio
The requirement of dealing directly with subjectivity brings very peculiar characteristics to education that go beyond the limits of any logical organization. This article focuses on the limits of the metaphor of work in education, on its function of modeling and, thus, explaining the teaching activity. As a donor of a universal sense to human activities, the metaphor of work, which cannot be reduced to the simple displacement of words, rather to the transposition of ingrained sense, became excessive and insufficient to consider the task of human development. In this sense, the introduction of the concept of action to elucidate the teaching activity comes up with representative potential for the practice of the teacher, a place where the work metaphor cannot be fully realized.
Review
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Acknowledgements