PREVIEW NOTES

Permanent education fostering new practices in mental health: a descriptive study

Amanda dos Santos Mota¹, Ana Lúcia Abrahão¹, Ândrea Cardoso de Souza^1
1Fluminense Federal University

ABSTRACT
Dissertation project for the Professional Masters in Health Education at Fluminense Federal University. General Objective: To analyze the process of the implementation of Permanent Education (PE) activities in a psychiatric hospital in the municipality of Niterói. Specific Objectives: To describe the changes in the nursing work team of this hospital, as a result of the implementation of a discussion/supervision group, and describe the characteristics of PE as a changing device in professional practice in mental health. Method: This is a descriptive study using a qualitative approach. The data will be collected from open interviews with nursing professionals, a focal group and field journals. The data content will be analyzed. It is expected that this study will lead to a questioning about the practice at the hospital, and the setting up of a project that allows alternatives to current practice and which will improve the effectiveness of PE in this institution.
Keywords: Mental Health; Health Education; Nursing

PROBLEM SITUATION AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE

Today, mental health procedures drive the construction and consolidation of substitutive networks. These generate a focus on the patient and also specify and rationalize the tasks involved. Therefore, the actions of the Brazilian Ministry of Health in this area are based on the support of programs and policies which work in a constant network. The actions and the incorporation of new information brought about by the Psychiatric Reform are fundamental and help in the process of the adherence to, and continuity with, treatments, allowing the users to live a more autonomous life. However, the innovations in the field of ideas and structures in mental health did not cope with the field of education and work in mental health, where one produces the other⁽¹⁾. In this setting, the process of work, especially on the part of the nursing team, could not operate together with the construction and adoption of new practices in mental health, necessary requirements in the construction of a wider clinical practice. Consequently, health professionals must be seen as a dynamic component that needs constant support and investment⁽²⁾.
The practices of the nursing team are characterized by conflicts of paradigmatic transition in terms of the intervention models of mental health. These conflicts are due to, on the one hand, the new call by the managers of public institutions for a practice centered on the subjectivity of clinic procedures and sensibility in healthcare, and on the other hand, on the part of the nursing team, due to a resistance to the implementation of new healthcare practices, and by the lack of knowledge and motivation. Sometimes this conflict is so deep and involved, that the actors do not reflect upon their own actions in terms of their practices. And it is in this configuration that PE presents itself as the linking axis of such reflection.
Permanent Education is understood as a continuous educative process which has a revitalization nature and which leads to personal and professional outcomes. It is based on meaningful learning and develops from daily problems that occur in the workplace, taking into consideration the knowledge and the pre-existing experiences of the team⁽³⁾.
From issues that have emerged, we believe that the guiding questions are: How does the nursing team incorporate into its work routine, the debate produced in the PE meetings? What is the use that the nursing team has from the spaces offered for the practice of PE in the psychiatric hospital in the municipality of Niteroi? Does the PE experienced by the nursing team promote significant changes?
As a general objective we aim to analyze the process of the implementation of the PE activities in a psychiatric hospital in the municipality of Niteroi. In addition, the specific objectives are to describe the changes in the nursing team of this hospital from the implementation of a discussion/supervision group, and the characteristics of PE as a change device with regard to professional practice in mental health.

METHOD

This is a descriptive study of an exploratory character which adopts a qualitative approach.  The aim is to provide a detailed analysis of the practices of healthcare on the part of the nursing professionals, as a result of the implementation of the PE process. The study will be developed in a public psychiatric hospital in the municipality of Niteroi and is focused on a target population composed of those nursing technicians and nurses who participated at least four times in the discussion/supervision meetings, and who have worked for at least three months in the hospital. The estimated number of individual technicians and nurses is 59. The data collection will be performed through the use of an open interview. In addition, the attitudes and the nursing professional values will be explored through the use of a focus group and field journals. For the analysis of data, we will use content analysis involving topic categorization, which implies the formation of classes and categories to group the data and to transmit their meaning visually. This study was sent for consideration by the Ethics and Research Committee of the School Hospital Antônio Pedro. Concerning the ethical aspects, we will follow Resolution 196/96 of the Brazilian Ministry of Health that regulates such criteria for studies involving human beings.

REFERENCES

1. Merhy, EE. Saúde: a cartografia do trabalho vivo. São Paulo: Hucitec; 2007.

2. Mângia EF. Formação e educação permanente para produzir boas práticas em saúde mental. Rev Ter Ocup Univ [ serial in the Internet ]. 2009  [ cited  2012  Jul  02 ]  20(2). Available from: http://www.revistasusp.sibi.usp.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1415-91042009000200001&lng=pt.

3. Lino M, Backes V, Schmidt, Ferraz F, Prado M, Martins S. The reality of Nursing Continuing Education in the Public Health Services: A descriptive study.  Online braz j nurs [ serial on the Internet ]. 2007 [ Cited 2012 July 2 ] 6(0). Available from: http://www.objnursing.uff.br/index.php/nursing/article/view/619

Data of the project: Dissertation project of the Professional Masters in Health Education Project: Interdisciplinary Professorial Formation for the Brazilian Unified Health System (SUS, in Portuguese), sent to the Ethics Committee on June 25th 2012.
Address for correspondence:
Ms. Amanda dos Santos Mota.
Rua Emílio de Menezes 120
São Gonçalo, RJ, Brazil
ZIP 24426-390.
Electronic Mail: amandas_mota@yahoo.com.br.

Approved: 19/07/2012
Received: 04/09/2012