Educação permanente: indispensável estratégia para o enfrentamento das condições crônicas de saúde

Abstract

Protagonist on development of policies that guide the formation, development, distribution, regulation and management of health professionals, the Unified Health System (UHS) has been concerned with the logic of individual and collective health provided to users. In order to consolidate its principles, an important strategy was the creation of National Policy for Continuing Education in Health. This study aims to present the development and results of a workshop dedicated to coping with chronic conditions among professionals from Primary Health Care of small cities in Rio Grande do Sul State. The workshop focused on identifying prior knowledge of each participant on chronic health conditions and actions developed by them, as well as discussing aspects related to Chronic Conditions of Health, Users Embracement, Health Care Networks (HCN), Risk Assessment and Vulnerabilities. The data were collected through a pre and post-workshop questionnaire. The results showed that professionals have a reasonable knowledge about the chronic conditions, psychological adaptation and cities HCN, also they perform users embracement and risk evaluation daily. Therefore, it can be concluded that the workshop carried out professionals` knowledge increasing, especially to those from Family Health Support Center (FHSC). Thus, the importance of continuing education, promoted by regional health coordinators and also within health services, is reinforced as a way to change the health care model, in order to effectively facing chronic conditions.