Representações sociais de profissionais de saúde sobre as ações para a cessação do hábito de fumar

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to know and analyze the social representations of the health professionals who are present in a network of meaning about the actions for the cessation of smoking. Health education actions are a way to maintain a link between the system user, the health professional and the health institution, and to know the reality of the population attached to the Basic Health Unit. Smoking is one of the risk factors for the onset and development of chronic non communicable diseases being seen as a mental and psychological disorder. In Brazil, the number of smokers had a drop that can be attributed to the development of prevention and control actions such as those offered by the National Tobacco Control Program, organized by the National Cancer Institute. The objectives of this study were: to know the social representations of health professionals about the development of actions for the cessation of smoking and to analyze the social representations of these professionals on the development of actions for the cessation of smoking. A qualitative research of descriptive and exploratory character was carried out with the support of Theory of Social Representations in Denise Jodelet's procedural vision. The participants were 20 higher-level health professionals: nurses, doctors and social workers who work in the Basic Health Units of a municipality in the Zona da Mata Mineira. Data were collected between August and December 2016 and a semi-structured script was used to subsidize the interviews, which were audio-videotaped. For the analysis of the data, Word® 2010 resources were used as a database of transcribed interviews that were later submitted to the OpenLogos® software in version 2.0 for the textual edition of the data. The interpretation of the data is based on the Bardin Content Analysis. From the analysis of the interviews emerged four categories: Weaving the network of the health professional in Primary Care; Representations of health professionals regarding actions to promote health and health education; The social representation of the health professional about the training for the cessation of smoking; Educational actions aimed at the cessation of smoking. The representations evidenced in the study demonstrated that the Primary Care health professional is developing his assistance practice mechanically due mainly to the overload of work that he experiences before a population that presents social demands. In-service training was pointed out as something that needs reformulations with emphasis on the development of educational actions aimed at cessation of smoking. It is hoped that the study may contribute to the fact that the managers of the Health Departments of the municipality that was the scenario of the research and of the other Brazilian municipalities can use the results as a subsidy for the educational actions and professional training activities aimed at the cessation of the habit of smoking in order to prioritize the demands that are experienced in primary care.