Community health workers and continuing health education: An alliance for equity in community well-being

Abstract

Community Health Agents (CHA) are professionals who work in primary care networks, more specifically in family health teams, such as the Family Health Strategy (FHS), which are based on providing conditions for the promotion, protection, prevention and recovery of health to the community, following the criteria of the National Primary Care Policy (PNAB),  being the link between the community and the health services in the region, being able to stimulate education and promotion in oral health, calibrated with Permanent Health Education. The objective of this study is to survey the general knowledge of the CHAs about oral health, and at the end to evaluate the results obtained, as well as to report the event of Continuing Education in Health held after the research, with the aim of promoting continuing education in health for the CHAs. This is an observational, cross-sectional and action research study carried out in a medium-sized municipality in the central region of the state of Rio Grande do Sul. All 95 CHAs who work in the public network were invited to participate in the research, on the days available for the interview, 56 participated and only 2 did not answer the questionnaire and a quantitative approach was used. The prevalence of females was 78% and only 46.4% of the interviewees answered that they had received some type of instruction in oral health. The interconnection between CHA, Health Education and Permanent Health Education is essential to drive healthier, more aware and less unequal communities, with more effective health systems.