As condições de trabalho dos agentes de saúde escolar e suas repercussões na saúde desses profissionais

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Work makes it possible to promote professional and personal fulfillment, the health and well-being of workers, and represents one of the most important aspects of the organizational, group, personal and social life of individuals. Its nature and the conditions under which it is carried out determine, in part, the consequences or effects that work activity may have on people. The work environment is a physical and symbolic place, which integrates a social reality, which is capable of affecting professional performance, physical and mental health and the dynamics of the worker's social relationships. At the Uberlândia Municipal Health Department, the origin of the position of “School Health Agent” (ASE) was through the merger between the positions of “Zoonosis Control Agent” and “Health Agent”, due to the common aspect of that both carry out activities that address information about “Environmental Health”; and in the PSE, in addition to this topic, the ASEs develop other issues related to health in general, aimed at children and young people. The work developed takes place with the distribution of these professionals across territories and school institutions and the partnership with Education professionals, whose strategic operationalization is based on the guidelines and principles recommended by the National Primary Care Policy (PNAB) and the Pedagogical Political Project of Schools (PPPE). OBJECTIVE: To understand the working conditions of ASEs and their repercussions on the health of these professionals, in the context of the PSE, in the municipality of Uberlândia, in the last decade. METHODOLOGY: The proposed study opted for field research, with a mixed, qualitative-quantitative and exploratory approach and Focus Group dynamics. RESULTS: With the results of this study, 02 articles were generated, the first entitled "Perceptions of School Health Agents (ASE) about their environmental conditions and daily work in Uberlândia-MG" and the second article entitled " Working conditions of School Health Agents: Implications of work routine on physical and mental health". GENERAL CONCLUSION: This study allowed us to understand, through the FG technique, and the questionnaire applied, that factors that generate stress at work, such as noise, lack of space, demand, overload, self-expectation, feeling of not belonging, make these professionals feel powerless in some situations that occur in the school environment, contributing to physical, mental and emotional illness during the workday. The subjective aspects highlighted sometimes seem to exert an important influence on the worker's contentment, since investment in training and professional recognition are highly valued by the workers who are the subjects of the research. And this positive subjective evaluation can have a calming effect on the objective negative evaluation. Finally, considering the need to understand more specific complaints and suggestions on the part of ASEs, which may not have been addressed, other future research is suggested, with different methods and interdisciplinary efforts, in order to better cover working conditions, perceptions and strategic points for improvements in the daily work and occupational health of workers who work as School Health Agents in the city of Uberlândia-MG.