Qualificação em Medicina de família e comunidade e orientação comunitária na estratégia Saúde da Família de Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais

Abstract

Since the Alma Ata Declaration, Primary Health Care came to be understood as the first level of contact with the health system, guided by principles of solidarity and equity and based on appropriate methods and technologies. Community orientation, an attribute derived from Primary Health Care, stands out for emphasizing the importance of knowing itself as a community health need. Although this specific attribute is recognized in Brazil as a guideline for the Unified Health System and the Health Care Network, studies conducted both internationally and nationally demonstrate that community orientation has poor performance in general. It is questioned, therefore, which factors can contribute to a better performance of this attribute, especially if professional qualification in Family and Community Medicine contributes to the optimization of this performance. The present study aimed to verify the association between professional qualification in CFM and the degree of Community Orientation from the perspective of medical professionals working in the Family Health Strategy of Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais. A census study of doctors from all Family Health teams in the Belo Horizonte regions comprised a target population for this study. Sociodemographic variables related to academic training and occupational status were inherited through questionnaires constructed by the authors. The PCATool-Brasil instrument was used to measure the performance of the community orientation. The analyzes were performed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences software version 15.0, obtaining descriptive measures and comparing the satisfactory and unsatisfactory perception of the Community Orientation score and the independent variables using the chi-square test, with Fischer correction. The mean score of the attribute was 7.9 (SD ± 1.2). No independent variable found a statistically limited association with satisfactory Community Orientation. There was a correlation between the time of completion of medical residency in MFC and high score for Community Orientation. Further studies are recommended that analyze specialized training from the perspective of community orientation and the challenges that professional practice imposes on its implementation.