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

Considering the challenges in implementing emergency measures related to workforce management during the COVID-19 pandemic, this documentary and qualitative study gathered official documents produced by the governments of Brazil, Canada, and Portugal to address this disease, focusing on the regulation of health workforce management from 2020 to 2022, and described the proposed interventions. The research included 31 regulations, whose analysis was guided by the document “Health workforce policy and management in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic response,” revealing changes in the structural organization of environments, allocation and reallocation of professionals, and the use of information and communication technologies in health to adapt organizational decisions and guide work. Similarities include recommendations to reorganize work environments and conditions to minimize exposure to SARS-CoV-2 contamination risks. Distinctive measures in Canada included strengthening primary health care and exceptional funding for remote work. Portugal opted for adjustments in labor relations, flexibility in hiring foreign professionals and retired volunteers. Brazil recommended recruiting residents and health students. Common findings suggest evidence of pathways to strengthen health workforce management policies in the post-pandemic scenario.

The objective of the study was to analyze the guidelines for organizing work with the inclusion of digital technologies in the health sector, as presented in official documents from Brazil and Portugal. The document review, conducted in May 2024, included documents from the year 2011 onwards, resulting in 11 documents from Portugal and ten from Brazil. The findings indicate similarities in the regulatory frameworks of the two countries, including the process of semantic interoperability of information systems, electronic health record systems, the use of telehealth to support health and management decisions, and the promotion of electronic prescriptions. The differences are related to the definition of the support network for the implementation of technologies, as well as the use of artificial intelligence for epidemiological surveillance and triage and screening consultations in teledermatology within primary care units in Portugal. In Brazil, notable aspects include the institutionalization of the Digital Health Secretariat within the Ministry of Health and the establishment of the Digital Basic Health Unit in the context of Primary Health Care. By revealing the use of technologies to support practices, a thorough analysis of the documents can contribute to the implementation of public policies and to a democratic and inclusive digital transformation in both countries.

Women’s health education empowers professionals to address issues focused on diagnosis and treatment, sexual and reproductive health, gender-based violence, and mental health, aiming to improve the quality of care provided and strengthen the relationship between professionals and their patients, promoting a woman-centered health approach. The objective was to develop, implement, and evaluate a digital training plan for public health workers in Rio Grande do Sul, Southern Brazil, focused on women’s health. A cross-sectional qualitative and quantitative study was conducted on the live sessions organized between October 2022 and December 2023, held in a synchronous virtual format. Additionally, a qualitative and descriptive analysis of the chat questions and a profile analysis of the participants were undertaken. A total of 436 people participated live in the 12 thematic sessions. Over 80% of the participants were health professionals, and the sessions have accumulated 3,523 views to date. Regarding the questions, 36.4% referred to access to health services. There is a need for new educational technologies that promote accessible and flexible learning, as access to information about women’s health must be continuous.

With the aim of analyzing the repercussions of current management and financing policies of Primary Healthcare services in Brazil on the work of occupational therapists, an action research was carried out, operationalized as a community of practice, with 14 meetings, in which six occupational therapists from different regions participated, from April to October 2023. The transcripts of the meetings were thematically analyzed and the results were organized into three themes: the overloads and dehumanization of work in Primary Healthcare; the desire to offer quality care, learned in initial training, in contrast to the high demand for adaptability in fragmented work processes; and coping with these contingencies. The participating occupational therapists demonstrate the diversity of employment relationships, in a variety of services and populations served. The meetings in the community of practice enabled access to multiple realities of the work of occupational therapists, with repercussions on personal and professional daily life and health. In addition, tensions between training for community care in Primary Healthcare and the reality of individualized, fragmented work driven by goals are highlighted – evidencing contradictions between the policy of training for Primary Healthcare, the policy of implementation, and the execution of this work.

In Myanmar, during the civil war following the February 2021 military coup many medical students suspended their studies. The University of Parma is committed to organize alternative courses for Myanmar medical students. The aim of this study was to examine through a mixed method the current educational needs of Myanmar medical students and the feasibility of alternative training courses. The quantitative research revealed that many students can attend educational activities online. The main difficulty concerns training through clinical practice, although some of them believe in the possibility that online simulation can partially make up for this deficiency. The training areas of main interest are: Mental Health, Emergency Medicine, Public Health, Healthcare Management. The qualitative study revealed that the students are confident that foreign universities can provide online training activities not only during the civil war, but also when peace has been established, and that such activities may be legally acknowledged. These results, in addition to documenting the resilience of the students involved in this research, respond well to the need to direct training to the effective actual needs whilst addressing the need to understand the specific context in which students will have to benefit from training, even in war situations.

The aim of the article is to conduct a historical analysis of the Federal Network’s role in offering technical health courses between 2017 and 2023, based on data obtained from the Nilo Peçanha Platform of the Ministry of Education. It starts from the inherent problematization of the low indicators of public sector participation in the training of health technicians, the curricularization of health through the pedagogy of competencies, and the advances of neoliberal policies that alter the relationships of human and professional training. The article is guided by the theoretical and methodological framework of historical and dialectical materialism, understanding that the relationship between work, education, and health constitutes a determination of social reality. The results corroborated the low participation of the Federal Network in offering technical courses and enrollments in health and the intense representativeness of the private sector. However, they revealed an important data point that endorses the political and social role of the Federal Network and, mainly, of the Federal Institutes: the continuous increase in the number of enrollments in integrated high school health education.

During the pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, associations and social movements belonging to rural populations have taken various actions to ensure the survival of their communities. The aim of the study was to analyze the effects of associative practices in guaranteeing the health of the rural population in the context of the pandemic. This is a qualitative case study in which the Landless Rural Workers’ Movement and three quilombola associations took part, covering three regions of Brazil (South, Southeast and Northeast). A total of 15 interviewswere conductedwith members of these movements between 2021 and 2022. The data was examined using thematic analysis. The actions organized in the territories were based on principles of solidarity, the management of community life and the defence of life, making responsibility for health and social rights a community matter. Popular organization during the pandemic has led to greater commitment within associations, settlements and encampments in the fight for health and rights, provoking community mobilization and political training that has made collectives stronger to build their struggle. Associativism, through grassroots organization, has fostered solidarity, political education and collective care, acting from an emancipatory health perspective.

Editorial