[Nurses' practice in health audit]. / A prática da enfermeira em auditoria em saúde.

The objective of this investigation was to identify nurses' practice in heath audit. The hermeneutic-dialectic method was used for the analysis. The study was performed in three loci: the internal audit service of a hospital; the external audit service of a private health service buyer, and the state audit service of the public health system (SUS, acronym in Portuguese for Sistema Unico de Saúde-Unique Health System), in Bahia. Nine audit nurses were interviewed. In the SUS audit, the nurses report being fulfilled with their practice and with the valorization of their professional role. In the private audit--both inside and outside of health organizations--the nurses' activities are focused on meeting the interests of their contractors, and do not get much involved with the care delivered by the nursing team and with the needs of service users.

[Evaluation of the decentralization of epidemiologic surveillance to the Team of the Family Health Program]. / Avaliação da descentralização da vigilância epidemiológica para a Equipe de Saúde da Família.

The aim of this study is to evaluate the decentralization of Epidemiologic Surveillance actions to the Family Health Program in a city in the state of Bahia, Brazil. The research was conducted as a case study, using adapted techniques of thematic and evaluative analysis. In face of the need to adopt a model for this analysis, it was decided to adopt the political model of implantation analysis. The primary data were collected in semi-structured interviews with managers of the local Health Department and the Family Health Team and the secondary data through document analysis. The study demonstrated that Epidemiologic Surveillance is understood in three ways: as a kind of medical police action; as an instrument of surveillance focused on the control of transmissible diseases and as surveillance addressing the risk of damages. As refers to the capacity of intervention, although mainly directed to disease detection and control, the performance of the Family Health Team was found positive. We conclude that it is possible to decentralize Epidemiologic Surveillance to the Family Health Program but the effective implantation of this process will depend on the support of health managers and professionals and on a political project assuming the decentralization of epidemiologic survey a strategy towards reorganization of the healthcare system in the city.