Comportamento interpessoal de agentes de saúde na prática cultural "Programa Municipal de Controle da Dengue, GV-MG"

Abstract

The present study aimed to describe professional behaviors and social skills of health workers in scenes of the cultural practice Municipal Program to Fight Dengue in the city of Governador Valadares / MG (PMCD / GV). The method used was descriptive, documental, with quantitative and qualitative approach. Three data sources were examined: (1) documents generated by the action of PMCD / GV, (2) responses of 112 health workers to instruments Professional Questionnaire (QP) and Social Skills Inventory (IHS), (3) observation of twenty health workers´ professional behaviors at work. The first source of data allowed to describe the historical and behavioral aspects of cultural practice to control dengue in GV during the years 2000 to 2009. Although several strategies have been established for the control, prevention and attempted eradication of the vector Aedes aegypti in the city, there was, throughout the period investigated, significant variability in rates of mosquito infestation and, consequently, the occurrence of three epidemic episodes of the disease in the city. Soon, it was observed that the cultural practice established in the metacontingency called PMCD / GV did not affect the aggregate output generated by macrocontingency. The second source of data allowed to evaluate the health workers’ repertoire of social, personal and professional skills. The results showed that the majority of the participants are male, young, have medium level of schooling, are included in PMCD by political designation and have levels of social skills with results within the average and above average. Finally, the third source of data recorded the frequency of the indicators of technical and social skills in the health workers’ repertoire emited during the inspection visit at resident’s home. It was observed that participants more frequently emit behaviors that require technical skills, such as the finding of breeding of Aedes aegypti, than social skills, such as making a intervention on resident education. It was concluded that, to get a functionality in the work of health workers working in the control of dengue and a best result of the PMCD / GV cultural practice, it is necessary to establish changes in the policies of Collective Health, with an advanced planning based on past practices that have had been operative or not so that from them might be made a mapping what action can be effective or not in their actions in the future. It is emphasized the importance of health education to be more operationalized in terms of Behavior Analysis, specifically in how behavior can be modificated in a collectivity, because it – health education – is one of the goals of any metacontingency defining public 11 policy in Collective Health. This will require a change in two moments of cultural practice here focused - the PMCD / GV-MG. The first one is the training of those professionals to work effectively in health education, when the government will arrange contingencies for the acquisition of interpersonal skills (required for their interaction with the resident population) and behavior modification skills (what should be an essential part of required "technical expertise" emphasized by the current policy). The second moment is the product of the first: efficient interaction of the health worker with the residents in the community.