Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

The community health agents are an important element in the management of medication information in primary healthcare setting, improving healthcare team interaction with the community. The aim of this study was to reveal how the use of medicines is present in the routine of agentes and understand the relationships established between agents, users and healthcare team. This is a quantitative and qualitative study, using participant observation, semi-structured interview and focus group. This study was conducted at three basic health units in a municipality of Minas Gerais, Brazil, between March, 2013 and February, 2015. The results show that agents constantly relate with patients who experience drug therapy problems and have doubts about the indication, effects, adverse drug reactions, among other. They perform some interventions directly with the patient, but usually they prefer to refer casesto the healthcare team. Some agents said recognizing the pharmacist as a reference on medicines, but the demand for this professional was low by the subjects of this study. We emphasize the importance of the agents training on medication use to instrumentalize them to recognize problematic situations, to develop interventions with the support of the healthcare team and to follow up patients using medicines.

Mental health care is dependent on qualified human resources to respond dynamically to the service users’ needs. This qualification by reflection on the work processes is essential for effective change to a community and biopsychosocial perspective. The Community of Practice is a theoretical framework that fosters collaborative learning through mutual engagement in common projects and negotiation of meanings. The research had as objective to systematize the use of Community of Practice for improving mental health care, by systematic review at Capes Portal and Virtual Health Library in March 2015. We found nineteen articles and nine of them were selected for analysis. The studies evaluated the Community of Practice as positive to improve the services offered to the population, provide training from experts, and implement new methods of work. They highlight weaknesses (financial resources, initial misalignment between the participants, group conflicts) and potentialities (real engagement of participants, virtual participation, access to specialists, integration of professionals, users and families in a singleproject; training needs in context). We expected to clarify possibilities for training and investigative strategies for continuing education in mental health.

The aim of this study was to understand the essential elements of the systematization process of the clinical practice of a pharmacist in primary healthcare. This systematization was based on the framework of pharmaceutical care practice, which provides the foundation for comprehensive medication management services. The methodology utilized was autoetnography, built collaboratively between the authors. The data have been produced through participant observation, field journals, reflections and semi structured interviews with pharmacists who are building clinical practices in primary health care. The results have demonstrated that the main elements associated with the systematization of clinical practices are ‘the construction of a new professional identity in a multiprofessional team’ as well as ‘the incorporation of new activities in the work routine’, that, combined, result in ‘Integration of comprehensive medication management services in the flow of the health unit’. In this way, in order for the pharmacist to legitimize his role in patient care,it is necessary to change, to transform, to reorganize and to rebuild his practice.

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The aim of this study was to analyze factors associated with the identification and reporting of abuse of children and adolescents in the course of the practice of physicians working in primary care, as well as the influence their training had in this practice. Carried out between 2010 and 2012, the survey involved 227 Family Health Strategy physicians in municipalities of the state of Ceará, Brazil. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were done based on data from questionnaires the participants responded to. Most reported not having been trained in the subject during their undergraduate studies (73.6%), that they did not know the form used to report violence (59%), and that the unit where they worked did not have such a form available (80.5%). Most also reported not knowing institutions they could refer victims of abuse to (85.6%). Of the participants, 53.1% had already identified at least one case of abuse of children and adolescents during their professional practice and 52.6% reported the case. Time since graduation, awareness of the notification form, and confidence in protection agencies were associated with the identification of abuse. The availability of the notification form at the unit and knowledge of a place to refer the victims to were factors for notification. It was concluded that there is a need to discuss and guide training physicians in the identification of this issue and in the handling of its notification.

Integration between teaching and service affords better training to teachers, students, and to health service professionals, and, as such, ensures quality actions and services are provided to the population. This study aimed to refocus the training of professionals taking courses at the Health Sciences Center at Sagrado Coração University, in Bauru, state of São Paulo, Brazil, in line with the National Reorientation Program for Vocational Training in Health II. These courses' curricula were reorganized, including adjustments made to teaching in accordance with social and labor market demands and the incorporation of new educational technologies. Based on this analysis, we created a group of subjects common to all health courses taught at the institution, i.e., an identity that characterizes the profile of the professional graduating from the Health Sciences Center at Sagrado Coração University was developed. The results were the training of a professional competent to act as a manager and multiplier of the NHS principles, the improvement of the training process of the professionals in service, and the promotion of multidisciplinary work. For users, meanwhile, the results translate in improvements in the quality of the services received.

Several undergraduate programs in public health have been created in Brazil since 2008. Previous publications have described the opening process, the student profile, and the experiences these courses have had. Here we present a general profile of courses that were opened between 2008 and 2014. The information was obtained from the Brazilian Association of Public Health's Undergraduate Forum in Public Health Coordination and from the courses' institutional homepages. During the study period, there was a significant increase in the number of undergraduate programs in public health in the country; new job openings grew sixfold, and 285 people got bachelors degrees in public health. In early 2014, there were 18 courses in operation (17 in the public sector), with a total of 2,532 students enrolled. While graduate-level training in public health predominates in the Southeast, undergraduate courses are well spread in the country, although there is a need for further expansion to meet the Unified Health System's demands. Although these courses' training guidelines are similar, there are differences in their nomenclatures. The challenges to be faced in the further consolidation of undergraduate courses in public health as a training modality include the needs of the national curriculum guidelines, the continued expansion of the courses, the professional recognition of the graduates, and their greater incorporation into public health in the labor market.