Comprehension of Representations and Health Education Practices from Users and Professionals of the Family Health Strategy

Abstract

Introduction: Education in health is a key part in primary care. Health education practices are often reproduced in the context of health in a thoughtless or even automated way, which are socially determined. In this context, users and team members tend to reproduce ways to "educate", which objectives, concepts and practices can be contradictory to the principles of SUS and to the subjects' values. Knowing the representations and health education practices can contribute to the adequacy of care. Considering the present time when both the training of health professionals such as SUS consolidation must converge in their principles and practices, this study is justified by contributing to the debate on the concepts and practices of ES in the context of the ESF. Objective: To understand the representations and ES practices between users and ESF team. Material and Methods: Semi-structured quantitative and qualitative research focused on interview techniques with the theory of Social Representations as a benchmark for analysis and participant observation. Seventy-five subjects participated in four groups: a) Higher-education professionals, five nurses, three doctors and one dentist; b) eight professionals with technical training in nursing and dental health; c) ten community health workers; d) forty-eight users of ESF units. Data were analyzed using content analysis, whose categories were retrospectively established. Results: "Education" as well social value, cultural to be preserved in the family; "Health" as individual self-care; "Health education" as transmission, prescription of body care. Conclusion: The principles of popular health education can support redefinition processes of the practices analyzed.

Association of Oral Conditions with Quality of Working Life of Brazilian Police Officers

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