Educational practices of community health agents: conceptions and strategies

Abstract

This study carried out with the objective of analyzing how Community Health Agents conceive and develop educational practices in health with users, families and the community. Descriptive and exploratory qualitative research, carried out with Community Health Agents from eight municipalities in the extended region of Northern Minas Gerais. Eight focus groups were held between July and December 2018. The results showed that the understandings of the Community Health Agents about health education guide the development of practices that sometimes rely on the repetition of information and recommendations on lifestyle habits considered right and healthy, sometimes they are based on listening and dialogue on different aspects of users' lives. It was also identified an itinerant way for the Community Health Agents to operate with health education in the territories where they work. Considering the gradual and continuous de-characterization of the activities carried out by the Community Health Agents and resisting its consequences, this article sought to undertake a movement of (re)summoning for discussion the object of health education as an organic attribution of the Community Health Agents from which it seeks to strengthen the practices of disease prevention and health promotion in the community.