Da escolha ao cotidiano do agente de saúde da Cooperalfa: educador popular em saúde? / Popular health education as the basis of preceptorship in community health agent's technical training

RESUMO

A partir de uma revisão histórica, este artigo pretende analisar a prática de Agentes de Saúde do Projeto de Saúde da Cooperalfa, desenvolvido na década de 1980, em municípios catarinenses com base nos princípios da Atenção Primária, especialmente no que se refere à fun- ção de educador em saúde desses sujeitos. Por meio de um estudo exploratório descritivo com abordagem qualitativa, buscou-se embasar esta análise, a partir de diferentes aspectos conjunturais e estruturais que influenciavam ou poderiam influenciar a prática de educação em saúde. Observou-se que o Agente era considerado um educador em saúde, ainda que essa função não estivesse clara no Projeto, incorporando às suas práticas referenciais teóricos e metodológicos utilizados em seu próprio processo de formação. Dessa forma, foi desenvolvida uma postura educativa ética, voltada ao respeito e à troca de diferentes saberes com comunidade e profissionais de saúde, tornando-se um verdadeiro agente de transformação social. Os resultados encontrados neste estudo podem servir de subsídio para a discussão sobre o papel do Agente Comunitário de Saúde atualmente, tendo-se como base os princípios e as diretrizes que regem o SUS.

ABSTRACT

Starting from a historical revision, this article aims to present the systemization of Popular Health Education building process as transverse axis of the technical course of community health agent ( CTACS), from mentoring experience dating from the years 2013 and 2014. Beside the tutors, teachers and course coordinators' experience, the following were used as source for this paper registration in class daily, planning documents of courses, minutes of planning meetings and class councils, terms of reference and of the production of own students. Sought to identify two dimensions the education of students, considering not only the appropriation of technical knowledge, but fundamentally, the completeness of their training; and the educational effects noted in the course of CTACS. The tutor had assignments of integration and coordination of the contents presented to the ACS during the theoretical course modules from the "professional practices", which were meetings coordinated by the tutorsand related themes of the different axis of the course or presented by ACS as needs learning. The "professional practices" have been prepared in conjunction with the coordination and teaching of CTACS and enabled interventions and debates regarding expensive themes like gender and sexuality, social movements, media, violence, daily work, among others. Another line of action of the tutors was to build community diagnosis and guidance for Term Papers. The daily contact and the trust established between tutors and students made possible to develop a series of political discussions that contributed to the politicization of Community Health Agents on the issues of his own work as ACS, as well as on the issues of overall social-political context, comprising health as part of that context. In the process, was also seen how fundamental was the discussion on the role of ACS, encouraging it's portrayal of popular educator, which was not only through speeches on popular education, but through educational practice of course enhanced by the preceptors. We believe that this has resulted in an increase in self-esteem of agents, permeated by the appreciation of his work, which passed the understanding of the importance of this for SUS and a more democratic society.