This article discusses what management professionals think about the continuing health education processes in the city of Recife, state of Pernambuco (Northeast Brazil), describing the actions and relating them to the concepts of permanent or continuing education. It originated from a case study that used semistructured interviews made with seven managers. Content analysis was the method chosen to process the data. Permanent health education has been used as a tool to implement new work devices in primary health care. Results point to its use by management as a tool to change the working process. A few departments of the Recife Municipal Health Secretariat appropriated themselves more properly of the permanent health education concept, while others see it as equal to continuing education. The actions arose from difficulties at work, from what management has defined as important to train workers, and from what the universities have noted as demands for professional qualification. A few devices cited were the matrix support, institutional support, and the unique therapeutic project. The difficulties faced to improve the actions were fragmentation and the lack of prioritization of continuing health education by a few management professionals.
continuing health education; management; primary health care