Abstract

MENDONCA, Fernanda de Freitas  and  NUNES, Elisabete de Fátima Polo de Almeida. Needs and difficulties of tutors and facilitators in implementing a continuing health education policy in a large municipality in Paraná. Interface (Botucatu) [online]. 2011, vol.15, n.38, pp. 871-882. ISSN 1414-3283.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S1414-32832011000300020.

To strengthen continuing health education (CHE) policies, tutors and facilitators of CHE have been trained. This study was proposed in order to uncover their needs and difficulties during the process of implementing CHE. This was a qualitative investigation conducted among nine tutors and ten facilitators of CHE in the municipality of Londrina, Paraná. The data-gathering instrument consisted of semi-structured interviews and the data were analyzed in accordance with the discourse analysis proposed by Martins and Bicudo. The results showed that institutionalization of CHE was highlighted among the needs, and persistence of hegemonic practices was a difficulty. Based on the results, CHE needs to be consolidated through practicing it in healthcare services, because only in this way will tutors, facilitators and other healthcare professionals be able to overcome the limitations that permeate the process of implementing CHE.

Keywords : Health policy; Continuing Health Education; Work processes in healthcare; Personnel management in healthcare.