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 paper analyzes the factors of the precariousness of work in relation to the quality of life of the worker. It develops a critical line of reasoning that begins by understanding the contours of precarious work in capital order, and then the understanding of what Quality of Work Life (QWL) is and finally, an analysis of the challenges faced by workers today in relation to the possibilities of finding meaning in both life and work, which leads towards a project of human emancipation. The main idea put forward is that the QWL policies adopted by companies can temporarily relieve some symptoms, but do not reach the structural causes of the problems. The humanization of the management of the workforce may be a necessary scene within organizations, but should not be seen as a solution for work troubles.
Article
This article discusses, in a comparative way, the objective reality and representations of men and women concerning their work in medicine and the interfaces with the domestic sphere. Discrimination, incentives, and obstacles in careers are analyzed from the perspective of gender and generations. Data was collected at the Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre (HCPA), integrating quantitative and qualitative techniques. The results indicate that in order to explain career incentive factors, women seem to give more importance to private life elements while men put more emphasis on external factors. Both stress the importance of having a 'model' professional as ideal for professional practice and a positive academic environment with institutional support and good relationships with coworkers. Among the obstacles are overwork, lack of time, and financial difficulties, observing that there are differences of gender in regards to family life and personal problems. Women's 'comparative advantages' were highlighted in carrying out their activities. This study may contribute to the implementation of positive actions to improve the conditions of work life and gender equity, in both the public and private spheres.
Article
In this paper, I argue that policies to promote quality of life at work currently adopted by enterprises can serve as a stopgap measure to relieve symptoms caused by the intensification of work, but failed to address the structural causes of the problems faced by workers. I reinforce this idea by arguing that the need to "humanize" work has a tradition of managerial concern. I demonstrate by reaffirming polysemy, the non-materiality and the relativity of the concept of 'quality of work life', that the latter is a management fad that has different meanings in managers and workers representations and that work currently does not provide conditions for workers to carry out the process of biopsychosocial adaptation necessary to guarantee life. I support the adoption of the concept of 'living conditions' because it refers to workers' control over working relations and working conditions as a possibility, which requires the understanding of the process of work knowledge production as socially constructed and shared representations.
Article
In this paper we aim to draw attention to the historicity and the polysemy of the concept of Quality of Life at (of) work (QWL), or rather, Quality of Work (QW) and its political nature, as it involves contradictory class interests, with the idea of placing it at a level of discussion that questions the 'clinical' approach commonly adopted by capital and that designates individuals´ change of' habits as the main strategy. Thus, the discussion shifts to the category 'control' over the work processes in the point of view of workers' collectives allowing a relation between the concept and the notion that achieving QWL involves a political struggle that is originates from the correlation of the capital-labor strengths in concrete societies. In this sense, even if it is deemed incompatible to think of QWL as a reality of precarious work (and rights), this article advocates that the introduction of another 'vision' concerning this issue, which also has a strong political and counter-hegemonic character, can contribute to addressing the 'speech' and the skills that come along with it, the ones which are defended as being 'the' model approach of QWL by businesses and the intellectuals from the academy that advise them.
Article
This article is the result of a descriptive and exploratory study conducted with the coordinators and teachers of the Nursing and Nutrition courses from an institution of higher education in the city of Divinópolis, in Minas Gerais state. The aim is to detect and assess changes in the training of health professionals by observing what happens in this city and to characterize the training of health professionals in the light of relevant legislation and with an emphasis on policy and public health programs proposed by the National Curriculum Guidelines for health courses. Problems with the disciplinary actions and principles, guidelines and concepts related to the National Health System are among the main difficulties reported by the interviewees. It is a scientific article that intends to contribute to the already produced knowledge and to provide support to the discussions that coordinators, teachers, and students wanted to have about the necessary updating of the knowledge and practices of nursing and nutrition professionals, according to the new model of health development in Brazil.
Article
This is a discussion about Brazilian higher education, using as a parameter specialization courses in the postgraduate program based on the analysis of the Programa da Residência Multiprofissional em Saúde [Multidisciplinary Residency Program in Health-care], known as a postgraduate program. We used historical and documental research as a tool for analysis of the problems faced in the training model proposed in the Program and presented by the ministries of Education and Health as the basis for the consolidation of the national policy of health education. Our results show the importance of the postgraduate program in healthcare education. However, it's irregular offering and, in most cases, not academic, has characterized a limited model from a commercial perspective, highlighting the lack of public policies that ensure proper qualification. A Multidisciplinary Residency in Health-care aims to be a new strategy for policies of permanent education that by focusing on non-medical professional groups from the area, promotes the production of the necessary conditions for changes in the still hegemonic restrictive medical care model, of attention in healthcare. The question is whether the interference in the educational model will contribute to better professionals in the area or if it limits the structure of the network of public services by offering a field of precarious work.
Article
With this article, we intend to discuss the text written by Padilha, a basis for debate on this issue of the magazine, and embrace the challenge of discussing some of the issues that emerge from the referred article. In this same movement we took the opportunity to point out some of our positions on the issue. We began by prioritizing the urgent need for a critical and affirmative perspective of the power of life in relation to the very frequent and powerful impediments and constraints (such as the process of turning the work in progress precarious), the subject of our second topic. To conclude the discussion, we briefly focus on the process of emergence of the issue of 'Quality of Life' and then the so-called 'Quality of Work Life' (QWL), and finally discussing what it is.
Article
Surveillance in Occupational Health (Visat) comprises a set of practices legally entered in the National Health System (SUS) and recommended by the policy guidelines that address the health-work relations in Brazil. However, the Visat is still uncommon and, when available, depends on proactive attitudes of some professionals at the service level. Aside from the failure of the management of the health system to implement Visat, another reason it is not implemented is the lack of technical capacity of public officials. The article presents a methodological proposal for the training of Surveillance in Occupational Health using experiences developed some years ago in the field of education in services. We discuss the theoretical and conceptual foundations that guide the development of the field of occupational health and the problem-based pedagogy used in the process of continuous education of the SUS.
Article
The work of community health agents (CHA) was established as a profession in the sphere of the National Health System (SUS) in 2002. Its activities contribute to the demographic diagnosis of communities, the promotion of educational activities, the participation of the population in public policy, and home visits. Training is the responsibility of technical schools and human resources education centers of the SUS. This research seeks to identify, analyze and understand the changes in the life of the CHA since the agent's insertion in the Qualification and Professional Development Program and of his/ her professional practice. Methodologically, this is a qualitative study that uses focus groups. For data analysis, we used the technique of content analysis. It was found that the Program favors the consolidation of attention to health policies and contributes to the collective construction of knowledge. The Ministry of Health, by professionalizing the practice of the CHA, legitimizes the CHA´s knowledge supporting their inclusion in health services and increasing the local governance. For the CHA, training contributes to the overcoming of limits imposed by traditional practices and marks the production of knowledge. The ACS recognizes itself as a subject of action, and that training is a means of access to professionalization and social mobility.
Review
Ensaio
The 'bonus strategy' is defined by employers as a way to seek to make the workers work more and better using grants for additional monetary benefits to
wages as an incentive, conditional on an increase in productivity. Two examples of the strategy are mentioned, one of them referring to the Department of
Education of the State of São Paulo and the other to the University of São Paulo (USP). It examines the following three assumptions of the strategy – the conception of painful labor, workers imbued with the spirit of capitalism, and monetary reward as the only form of incentive – in an attempt to show that none of them have universal validity and are therefore strictly false. Then we present the additional evidence for the invalidity of the assumptions, derived from the work of retired teachers and teachers who have the credentials to retire, but that are still working. In the last section, the most disastrous consequence of the use of the bonus strategy is exposed: the 'idiotization' of society.
Interview
Hugh Lacey is Scheuer Family Professor of Philosophy Emeritus and Senior Research at the Swarthmore College (Pennsylvania, U.S.A.), where he taught for
thirty years, and researcher collaborator in the thematic project: "Gênese e significado da tecnociência: relações entre ciência, tecnologia e sociedade", USP/
FAPESP. Between 1969 and 1971 he was a lecturer at the Department of Philosophy of the University of São Paulo and ever since he has developed an intense interaction with Bra-zilian Universities and Research Institutes, with many others visits. Some of his main research interests are: the interplay between facts and values, the relevance of the development of alternatives to technoscientific practices (e.g., agroecology), the precautionary principle and transgenics. To end this brief presentation, it is important to mention Professor Lacey’s numerous publications, some of which listed at the end of the interview, as well as some publications on his work made by Brazilian Researchers. A more complete list of this books and articles can be found on the web page of Associação Filosófica Scientiae Studia, <www.scientiaestudia.org.br>.
Experience Report
This report deals with the experience of the Technical School of Health of Tocantins in the educational process of technical training of community health agents. It presents how these agents were trained to work with the multidisciplinary health care team in a critical, reflective, and ethical reality changing professional approach. The report also highlights the development of actions of social integration, health promotion and the prevention of disorders in the family and community. Technical training of community health agents includes three modules, with a total workload of 1,200 hours. In the first module issues such as background, approach and design of the professional profile of the agent were contemplated; in the second, health promotion and disease prevention targeted at specific groups and prevalent diseases, and in the third, the promotion, prevention and monitoring of situations of Health Surveillance. The Technical School of Health of Tocantins opted for the decentralization of classrooms (69 classes) in 18 training poles, meeting the demand of the 139 municipalities in the state, facilitating the participation of 2,219 students/civil servants who have completed the entire training curriculum.