TUBERCULOSIS IN PRIMARY CARE

CHALLENGES AND POTENTIALS IDENTIFIED BY THE REGIONAL COORDINATION OF PRIMARY CARE OF RIO GRANDE DO SUL

Abstract

The  purpose  of  this  article  is  to  understand  the  challenges  and  potential  of  primary  health  care  (PHC)  concerning tuberculosis care, so that permanent education strategies in health can be designed to qualify tuberculosis care by teams in this area. This is an exploratory-descriptive qualitative research developed with 19 regional primary care coordinations of the State of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. We used the Google Forms tool to apply an individual self-administered questionnaire, composed of 11 questions, two of which related to the objective of this work. From the 19 participants, 15 responded, 3 abstained, and 1 refused. The main challenges pointed out were the need for training PHC professionals, their awareness concerning tuberculosis, and issues related to social vulnerability. Among the potentialities identified, the proximity to the user, the presence of a multidisciplinary team and the health community agent, and the possibility of carrying out the treatment observed stood out. Therefore, just as there are multiple potentialities in primary health care, there are also many challenges to qualify the care provided to users affected by tuberculosis. In order to achieve this qualification, it is essential to promote disarrangement and re-signification of how care is delivered through permanent education processes.