A Política Nacional de Educação Permanente em Saúde: percepção dos cirurgiões-dentistas da Atenção Primária à Saúde

Taking as a reference the National Permanent Health Education Policy (NPHEP), which seeks the training of workers according to the needs of the population, management and professionals, the objective of this study was to know and analyze the perception of the dental surgeon (DS) of the Family Health Strategy (FHS) on NPHEP. This is a descriptive, cross-sectional and observational quantitative study, with a sample composed of 173 DS active on Primary Health Care Unities from the City of Fortaleza/CE. The data were collected by means of a semi-structured questionnaire. The categorical data were expressed as absolute and percentage frequencies, and were analyzed by means of the chi-square test. Evaluating the socioeconomic profile, the majority of the respondents were women (74.6%), married (72.8%), with an average income of 7 to 10 minimum wages (49.1%). As for the NPHEP, 51.2% knew it partially, and Permanent Health Education (PHE) was evaluated as regular by 48.8% and as good by 33.3%. It is noteworthy that the understanding of PHE as a contributing factor of professional training was positive for 97.7% of respondents. It was observed that greater participation in the activities of PHE favors the positive evaluation of the NPHEP. This policy is still unknown by many DS of the FHS. The PHE activities carried out in the city of Fortaleza are considered regular by most of the professionals interviewed. Aiming to advance with the PHE, the participants reinforce the importance of actions in the perspective of reflection by/at work in primary health care, seeking changes in the work process in health and consequently the improvement of health care provided to the population.