Perspectivas de profissionais de Educação Física sobre formação e atuação na atenção primária à saúde

Abstract

Among the many fields of activity of Physical Education, collective health is one of the most recent. Because of this, from the experiences provided in the bachelor's degree in Physical Education, there was little emphasis on training and performance focused on the context of collective health. Therefore, this qualitative research aimed to analyze the perspectives on the professional training and acting of Physical Education professionals (PEF) who work in primary health care, in the Unified Health System (SUS). As a data collection instrument, a semi-structured interview was used with eight PEF working in the context of public health in different areas and cities in the state of São Paulo. After data collection, the speeches found were analyzed and four categories of analysis were elaborated, namely: a) Initial Training in Physical Education that addresses the initial training of the interviewees and the contributions of this to their respective professional performances, being possible to notice that the curriculum that the interviewees went through during graduation did not effectively contribute to the work they perform today, with disciplines and mandatory internships with the theme of public health being scarce; b) Working Conditions/Situations, the second category, we found reports about inadequate infrastructure and materials for an efficient professional performance; c) In our third category called Continuing Education of the Physical Education Professional, we visualized a dissatisfaction on the part of the interviewees in relation to the lack of incentives to take courses and/or permanent education; d) the last category was called the Role of the Education Professional, where we identified that a large part of the research participants see the role of the PEF directly linked to disease prevention and health promotion actions. In this way, we emphasize through this study the importance of bringing undergraduate students closer to a more practical context of action and developing public policies that support and encourage the PEF inserted in public health.