EDITORIAL

The third issue of volume 10 of Trabalho, Educação e Saúde that the reader has at hand, opens with "Politics for training in physical education and public health," an essay authored by Alex Fraga, Yara Carvalho, and Ivan Gomes. The treatise provides an overview on the reflection and production of educational and research groups from three different institutions - Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), the University of São Paulo (USP), and the Federal University of Espírito Santo (Ufes) -, who ponder on the singularities of the physical education professionals' practice in health. The path followed by each group is revisited, and the essay helps clarify the issue, so fundamental in this context in which these professionals have been integrated into the Unified Health System (SUS) by means of the Family Health Strategy.

Community health agent training on a technical level is a plea that gained momentum with the publication of the reference curriculum in 2004, but the matter faces several difficulties, particularly political in nature. In "Assessment of a community health agent technical course from its graduates' viewpoint," by Maria Andrade of Modesto et al., the limelight is on the results obtained by the training technique carried out in Palmas, Tocantins. Among the many insights it features, the study addresses the construction of a clearer sense concerning the role the community health agent plays, and reworks the relationship there is among healthillness, assistance, and the promotion of health care.

Thinking about training based on everyday teaching and research devices was one of the starting points of Paul Medeiros, Hedioneia Pivetta, and Margaret Mayer's "Contributions of domiciliary visits to training in physiotherapy." The scenario is the Family Health Strategy, and the focus is on the training given to physical therapists, professionals who are not necessarily on the team, but who have been increasingly integrated into primary care. Study results value home visits as a teaching and learning experience that counteracts the prevailing fragmented training provided by physiotherapy courses, as it helps to provide an integrated, enhanced view of the processes involved in health-disease and in the provision of care.

In the field of health and, especially, in the relationship between health and education, there are issues that deserve to be constantly revisited given the vigor with which their conceptions permeate our practices. Hygienism is one of them. Laerthe de Moraes Junior and Eliane de Carvalho's "The discourse of the hygienist physician in the early 20th century" retrieves the theses disseminated in the 1st National Conference on Education, held in 1927, and analyzes them based on Foucault. By positioning hygienism in the context of the Brazilian social thought at hand, the text allows us to refine our understanding of the relationship between medicine, education, and society.

In "Knowledge regarding oral health among graduates in Education," authored by Clea Garbin et al., the role played by educational institutions in promoting health aiming to address issues specific to the sector is the backdrop for direct dialogue with students of education. Based on field research, the authors undertake a double mapping: knowledge about oral health and the understanding of the role teachers play in school health.

In a context that demands more democratic, participatory relations, such as the case of the SUS, what do we see in the management practices when we focus on the mid-level worker? This is an ongoing inquiry among researchers in professional education in health and the guiding line of the investigation discussed in Francini Guizardi and Luiza Cunha's article "Administrative professionals in the management of the Unified Health System: the social division of labor." By analyzing interviews, the authors call into question the place of inferiority these workers are kept in, workers who, in everyday services, remain isolated from the decision-making process.

In the first social work-related article we published, continuing education provides a hub for the questions the author raises. Rosa Maria Fernandes' "Continuing education in social worker labor situations" features the results of a survey based on the narratives of the professionals themselves. The analysis positions the socio-occupational spaces as the locus of the production of knowledge and education, highlighting the importance of the ethical and political dimension in the health training experience.

Workers' health is one of the public health areas that produces the most studies and concrete recommendations for the sector. Trabalho, Educação e Saúde's editorial policy is to publish studies that address issues pertaining to health or education workers. This is the case of the research project that originated the article titled "Mental health of caregivers working at shelters for adolescents with psychiatric or neurological disorders," by Mayara Muniz Bastos Moraes et al. By directing attention to the caregivers who deal with adolescents with neurological and psychiatric disorders treated at municipal care units, the authors go into an area that is seldom addressed: these professionals' potential psychological distress. In a context in which various factors contribute to confirm this suffering, work overloads, limitations to meet the demands that are directed to them, and unfavorable environmental work conditions are factors that add to the overall picture.

As an intentional activity, education selects and builds knowledge and values. The health sector, in turn, recursively redefines values that potentially draw health work closer to the principles and practices that guide attention in every social context. In "Values in health education and vocational training," Amâncio Carvalho, Graça Carvalho, and Vítor Rodrigues propose questions that arise in the field of promoting education in health and come up as the theme for vocational training. Responsibility, respect, solidarity, participation, autonomy, fairness, and cooperation are analyzed in the study, which is based on results attained in a survey carried out with students from seven health courses.

Regulated in 2010, the Education for Work in Health Program (Programa de Educação pelo Trabalho - PET) is a storehouse of experiences focused on the relationship between services and training that has been frequently addressed in the Report section. "The importance of PET-Health for nurse education," by Fatima Morais et al., reflects on the operationalization of this program in the state of Rio Grande do Norte.

In the Interview section, Virginia Fontes and Marcela Pronko speak with François Chesnais. The contemporary crisis of capitalism in the context of financialized economy is the backdrop for the French economist to address, among other topics, the role played by the National states and social policies.

Two book reviews close this edition: Filosofia da práxis e didática da educação profissional (Philosophy of the practice and didactics of professional education), by Ronaldo M. de Lima Araujo and Doriedson S. Rodrigues (Orgs.), published by Autores Associados, reviewed by Manoel José Porto Júnior; and the book titled Corpo em evidência: a ciência e a redefinição do humano (Body in evidence: the science and redefinition of human beings), by Francisco Ortega and Rafaela Zorzanelli, published by Civilização Brasileira, and reviewed by Jonathan Henriques do Amaral.

Angélica Ferreira Fonseca

Carla Macedo Martins

Marcela Alejandra Pronko

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  09 Nov 2012
• Date of issue
  Nov 2012