Community Health Agents and child health care: implications for continuing education.

Abstract

To understand the main situations faced by community health agents in relation to children's health in the light of permanent education actions. This is a research of qualitative approach, which used the Arc of Maguerez. Ten community health agents from a Primary Health Care Unit participated in the study. The following steps were addressed: observation of reality; identification of key points, and theorization. The speeches were recorded, transcribed, and their textual content was processed in the IRAMUTEQ software, using the Descending Hierarchical Classification. Five classes were formed, which composed three thematic blocks named as follows: child's social vulnerability in the territory; handling the child's health record, and vaccination schedule. Unveiling situations that influence the work of community health agents is essential for continuing education, as this favors assumptions applicable to daily work with resoluteness in child health.