EDUCAÇÃO CONTINUADA EM SAÚDE: UMA ANÁLISE SOBRE A PARTICIPAÇÃO DOS TRABALHADORES DA SECRETARIA DE ESTADO DE SAÚDE PÚBLICA DO RIO GRANDE DO NORTE
Continuing Education; Health Education; Health Professional; Unified Health System.
The present research aimed to analyze the participation of healthcare workers in educational activities developed by the State Department of Public Health of Rio Grande do Norte, considered as Permanent Health Education. It is a documentary, descriptive, and exploratory study, with a quantitative and qualitative approach, in which data were collected through document analysis and survey. Additionally, the Google Forms platform was also used for organizing the responses obtained through the questionnaires sent to the research participants. It was possible to observe that the workers participating in educational activities are mostly female, aged 30 to 39, with 1 to 5 years of service, with statutory bonds, specialists, and a 30-hour workweek. They are motivated by Knowledge Updating; Career Plan, Careers, and Remuneration; Compliance with Regulatory Requirements; Improvement in Service Provision, and Personal Satisfaction. The evasive professionals point out as reasons for course evasion excessive workload, lack of time, and issues regarding private life. The study also noticed a high rate of evasive professionals in educational activities, who proposed strategies to reduce evasion, such as flexibility of the workload, greater support from managers, and teaching modalities aligned with the reality of the service and professionals. It is expected that the results of this study will provide subsidies for management in the perspective of thinking about strategies that assist in the elaboration of the area of Health Education Management, focused on the development of the State Permanent Health Education Plan (PEEPS), a basic instrument that guides the definition of the Annual Programming of Permanent Education actions in health services, aiming to increase adherence and reduce the number of evasive professionals in Permanent Health Education activities.