Family Health Strategy and the rational use of medications: work of the community agents of the municipality of Palmas (TO)

• Autor(a) principal: Guimarães, Maria Sortênia Alves
• Data de Publicação: 2022
• Outros Autores: Tavares, Noemia Urruth Leão, Naves, Janeth de Oliveira Silva, Sousa, Maria Fátima de
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Trabalho, Educação e Saúde (Online)
• Texto Completo: https://www.tes.epsjv.fiocruz.br/index.php/tes/article/view/1086
• topic: uso racional de medicamentos; educação permanente; agente comunitário de saúde; Estratégia Saúde da Família; rational use of medications; continuing education; community health agent; Family Health Strategy; uso racional de medicamentos; educación permanente; agente comunitario de salud; Estrategia Salud de la Familia

An analysis was made of actions carried out by community health agents regarding community guidance on the rational use of medications in the Family Health Strategy in the municipality of Palmas, state of Tocantins, Brazil. This was a descriptive and exploratory study with a quantitative approach, done with 246 agents between January and April 2014. Data were collected via a questionnaire to verify the training and specific information on medications and on the risks of pharmacotherapy in their work. It was noted that 88%of the agents had no training on medications; 75.5% believed they did not have enough knowledge to provide guidance on medications; 80.41% said that the team never discussed topics on medications, and 90.20%felt they needed such training. The study revealed that these professionals sought information from various sources – medication insert leaflets were their main source (71.14%). Among the community health agents, respectively 52.46% and 50% asked for help from the nurse to solve issues and answer questions about pharmacotherapy. Among them, 68.03% considered it important to provide guidance to the families, but they said they need permanent education. There was a clear need for community agent qualification and training in promoting the rational use of medications, considering their role as health promoters in the community.