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
Article
This qualitative study had the goal of analyzing illness among the workers of the Basic Units of the Family Health Strategy in the city of Campo Grande, state of Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil, between 2015 and 2016. The data regarding the medical leaves of the workers were obtained from the databases of the Management System of Human Capital for Public Service (Sistema de Gestão de Capital Humano para o Serviço Público) and of the System of Municipal Welfare Institute (Instituto Municipal de Previdência). Among the workers with medical leaves longer than 30 days (n =114), 39 answered the four scales of the Inventory on Work and Risk of Illness. The main reasons for the medical leaves were related to the diagnoses of mental and behavioral disorders (337; 53%) and to diseases of the osteomuscular system and of the connective tissue (171; 27%). The rates regarding the risks of falling ill in the context of labor were only satisfactory for the pleasure indicators at work scale, in the professional achievement and freedom factor. The indicators at work scale and assessment of work-related injury presented serious risk, and the scales of assessment of the work context and human cost of labor presented critical risk. The workers are physically and emotionally ill, and in need of interventions to improve the quality of their lives and the efficacy of the services provided to the population.
Article
The dissemination of qualitative research methodologies in the field of Collective Health has been followed by the expansion in the use of discursive approaches. The effects of this increase have mobilized researchers in this field, be it through criticism of the epistemological abuses and weaknesses of its appropriation, through the distinction among the different schools of discourse analysis, or through the support of new research perspectives. In this article, I present a discussion about the ways to use the notion of discourse on the field, based on an analysis of a sample of 230 articles published by Brazilian authors between the 2014 and 2018, in 10 journals selected in the SciELO Public Health database. Characterized as a meta-research study, it highlights the theoretical-methodological frameworks, the discursive approaches, and the thematic universes to which the articles are affiliated. The multiplicity of perspectives is interpreted as an expression of the different traditions assimilated through the translation performed on the field. The prevalence of the methodological use, in the sense of a set of research rules and techniques, suggests the instrumentalization and incipient exploration of the notion of discourse. I end with an argument in favor of the potentiality of the post-structural discursive approaches –, and, in particular, with the Theory of Discourse by Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe – for the research in the field of Collective Health.
Article
Community health workers are indispensable, and they are considered important actors in the organization of the Unified Health System. The present study had the goal of evaluating the prevalence of symptoms of depression related to the occupational, sociodemographic and lifestyle factors of the workers. We performed a cross-sectional study with 400 community health workers through individual interviews in basic health units of a municipality of the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, between 2015 and 2017. The dependent variable was the prevalence of symptoms of depression (Patient Health Questionnaire), and the independent variables were psychosocial stress at work (demand-control model); social support; socioeconomic and demographic profile; self-perception of health; physical activity; labor characteristics and conditions; ability to work; and quality of life. The prevalence of symptoms of depression among the workers was of 20.6%. In the multivariate analysis, the prevalence of depression was associated with low or moderate ability to work, low social support, the upper, middle and lower strata of the lower class, and to the physical and psychological domains of quality of life. We suggest the creation of spaces to discuss mental health related to work.
Article
This article analyzes the trajectory of the Brazilian policy of education and work regulation considering institutional issues and forms of incorporation of medicine on the policy, comprising the period from 2003 to 2015. This study was based on contributions of historical institutionalism, involving the analysis of legal and normative documents, interviews with state personnel and data from federal financing reports of the policy. Five key moments were defined, considering political-institutional contexts, governmental initiatives, and the insertion of medicine into the agenda of governments. The emphasis on the medical profession evolved from one-off actions to the status of a landmark, in a context of loss of space of the health workforce agenda and increasing prioritization of education actions, associated with institutional gains and changes in funding. The More Doctors Program resulted from the dynamics of the trajectory, incorporating advances in the training and incorporation of physicians into the Unified Health System of Brazil. Challenges remain, however, related to precarious employment relationships, the privatization of medical education, and professional regulation that considers the exercise of medicine in the private sector.
Article
In this study we investigate how undergraduate teaching in a setting of Primary Health Care practice may constitute a space for learning interprofessional, through the analysis of its meaning in the training of future health professionals. The research was developed in a public university in Southern Brazil, with qualitative data collected through a self-applied online instrument with students and graduates (n = 186) of 15 health professions. The results show that teaching practices shared with students, teachers, health professionals from different fields, as well as with users, promote moments of listening and sharing of experiences, perceptions and different kinds of knowledge. The tutorial education in small groups strengthened the interprofessional education experience. The learning related to the acknowledgement and appreciation of the roles of each profession in the team, as well as to the development of communication skills, stood out. The short duration of the experience was a challenged acknowledged by the participants to promote integration. The interactions among students of different professions in practical teaching activities in primary health care promoted learning shared in the undergraduate courses, which can support the skills of collaboration in teamwork and comprehensive health care.
Article
The provision of physicians has been the object of international discussions for decades, and the same is true for Brazil, where there is a situation of shortage and bad distribution of physicians. The present research had the aim of describing the profile of the physicians included in the ‘More Doctors’ Program (Programa Mais Médicos, in Portuguese). It is a quantitative, cross-sectional, descriptive study, followed by a case study with information from 272 questionnaires. The data were analyzed using the SPSS statistical software, version 22.0. The average age of the interviewees was 38.2 years, and 50.7% of them were female, 11% were in their first jobs, 51.1% had graduated between 1 and 5 years prior to the study, and 85% reported having experience working in primary health care. We observed that, with the implementation of the ‘More Doctors’ Program in the state of Paraíba, Northeastern Brazil, there was a change not only in the amount of doctors, but also in the number of job posts, in the number of physicians who go work on the countryside, and in the redistribution of these professionals. However, the results indicate that there still are 22 municipalities in Paraíba without physicians, and that 85.3% of the physicians included in the Program still did not have a specialist title. The conditions of access and the quality of the services provided still constitute a great challenge yet to be overcome.
Article
In this article we propose a reflection regarding the transformations that occurred in Brazilian social protection, in spite of the advances and challenges of the dialogue between health and the Family Support Grant Program. In order to do so, we explored the symbolic dimension of the discourses of the beneficiaries and managers of the Family Support Grant Program, as well as of the primary health care workers. The article is based on a case study with a qualitative approach conducted in a municipality in the Southwestern region of the state of Bahia, Brazil, in 2015, through 26 interviews and three focus groups (29 participants). The statements described the advances of the Family Support Grant Program in fighting poverty, especially in situations of material poverty, as well as the effects on social recognition and dignity of the female beneficiaries. We verified limits to improve the structuring dimension of the program via its dialogue with the health sector. Stigmas and incomprehension connected to the Family Support Grant Program permeate the relationships between beneficiaries and primary health care workers. These issues hinder the acceptance of the vulnerabilities experienced on a daily basis by the families of the Family Support Grant Program as determinants of the work process in primary health care, which is still restricted to the follow-up of health conditionalities.
Article
The 1988 Brazilian Federal Constitution established specific posts for disables people in the public sector. The present article had the goal of describing the demographic and socioeconomic profile of disabled persons in the nine states of the Northeastern region of Brazil and compare it to that of the civil servants without disabilities in 2017. It is a cross-sectional study with secondary data from the Annual List of Social Data about 312,194 civil servants. We calculated the frequencies of the civil servants with and without disabilities according to gender, type of disability, age group, level of schooling, occupation, type of employment bond, time on the job, wage, and weekly working hours. The percentage of people with disabilities was below 2%, and the sample had a mean age of 44.2 years (standard deviation: 10.4), a higher prevalence of the male gender, basic level of schooling, and their jobs were tied to the Brazilian Consolidated Labor Legislation. By stratifying by type of employment bond and other variables, the civil servant without disability has a longer time on the job, higher hourly wages, higher wages, and lower weekly working hours than the disabled civil servants. The lower presence of women among the persons with disabilities in the public sector, as well as the lower wages verified among the group of disabled civil servants may guide, within those spaces, the need for more policies of inclusion and isonomy, as well as for more studies following this line of investigation.
Article
Historically, the training of mid-level health workers has been provided sporadically, with a focus on know-how. Within the context of the Brazilian Sanitary Reform, initiatives such as the ‘Large-Scale Training Project’ boosted the transition to an understanding of the critical-reflective technical work, and required a new model of training for basic- and mid-level workers. The Mid-Level Professional Training Program is the most recent large-scope initiative to qualify the work in the Unified Health System. We analyzed the profile, the work placement and the perception regarding the training process of this Training Program in the state of Maranhão, Brazil, of 404 graduates from the Technical School of the Unified Health System in Maranhão. We identified that: the socioeconomic profile of the graduates seems to mirror social inequalities; the teaching-learning process was in line with the guidelines of the Unified Health System, with pedagogical contradictions to be considered; and that there is a difficulty in retaining the trained professionals, which is expressed by the loss of ties, and the migration to private health services and to other fields not related to health. The qualification of professionals is complex, requiring actions in the field of political-pedagogical projects and work management projects, which go beyond the extension of the offer of enrollment spots in professionalization courses.
Article
Ongoing education in health guides significant learning processes, and proposes the production of effective results in health actions. This study had the goal of outlining the profile of the practices of ongoing education in health in the municipalities of the state of Goiás, Brazil, under the perspective of the representatives of the field. The present cross-sectional research used a semi-structured questionnaire that was filled out online by the participants. Most of the respondents are local references regarding ongoing education in health (68.9%); they are nurses who also work as primary care coordinators (31.8%). There was a predominance of municipalities that identify the existence of ongoing education in their territories (66.2%). In general, the actions are promoted by the municipalities themselves (61.3%) or by the regional health department (37.9%), and ongoing education stands out, followed by the (re)organization of the work processes and education in health. Factors regarding attitude, interpersonal relationships and human resources were pointed out as the most frequent challenges. Based on this diagnosis, we understand that most of the problems identified could be subjected to intervention. This study provides inputs for the strategic planning of ongoing education in health, for the support to the agencies responsible for its promotion and management in the municipalities, and to strengthen the ongoing education actions in the health services.
Article
The goal of this study was to describe the process of validation of the logical model of implementation of the Ongoing Education in Health Policy in Primary Health Care in the municipality of Vitória, state of Espírito Santo, Brazil. It was an evaluability study in which quantitative and qualitative techniques were used. We used the Delphi method with 15 (municipal and state) specialists, between January and June 2019. The participants classified the structural components, and the activities and products needed for the implementation of the policy and its respective results and impacts. There was a consensus regarding the items that would reach more than 80% of agreement, which were confirmed by the analysis of the median and interquartile range. The results were organized according to the technical components. Financial and human resources were considered indispensable. Regarding the processes, the items considered relevant for the implementation of the policy were: collective development of the ongoing education in health actions and of a document to guide the actions of the municipality, as well as evaluation instruments. The items regarding the results and impact were considered relevant, except for those related to the organization and structuring of the policy at the state and regional levels. The validated logical model was established as a contribution to the management of the Ongoing Education in Health Policy in Vitória.
Review
FRIGOTTO, Gaudêncio (org.) Escola “sem” Partido – Esfinge que ameaça a educação e a sociedade brasileira. Rio de Janeiro: UERJ, LPP, 2017, 144 p.