PREVIEW NOTES
Glória Iara dos Santos Barros1 , Mônica Villela Gouvêa1
1Fluminense Federal University
ABSTRACT
Professional Master’s dissertation project on Health Education, from Fluminense Federal University.
Aims: to analyze the practice of dentists from the Family Health Strategy (FHS) program in a city of the metropolitan region of the state of Rio de Janeiro with regard to oral cancer, and to describe the organization of the network with regard to the prevention and care of oral cancer in this city.
Method: a descriptive, exploratory study with a qualitative approach. The target population will be all the dentists working at the FHS units in the city, as well as their government managers. The techniques to be used are individual interviews and focus groups for the production of data, which will then be submitted to thematic analysis, with a focus on promoting the dialogue between the participants’ comments and the theoretical framework.
Descriptors: Mouth Neoplasms; Family Health Strategy; Primary Health Care.
SITUATION AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE
The high estimation of cases of oral cancer presented by the National Cancer Institute (INCA) and reiterated by the World Health Organization (WHO) indicate that it is a public health problem. It is an important pathological entity which can be minimized in terms of incidence and mortality if a policy of preventive measures, early detection and prompt treatment are adopted. In Brazil, Rio de Janeiro is the Brazilian state with the greatest estimated incidence of oral cancer in the biennium 2014/2015(1). Thus, the way that the city deals with the disease is the focus of attention of the Unified Public Health System network (SUS), which leads to discussion in the different spheres of government(2). This research studies the daily life of a family health unit of a city in the state of Rio de Janeiro, dealing with cases of male patients over 50 years of age, smokers and drinkers, with a late diagnosis of oral cancer at an advanced stage. In such cases, individuals have already experienced important consequences and have impaired survival chances(3). Given this situation, the following guiding questions were used for this research project: how do the professionals and the municipality deal with oral cancer? Are the practices of the Family Health Strategy (FHS) dentists of this municipality part of the context of comprehensive care? How can we strengthen and support the family health teams to address the issue of oral cancer? This project focuses on the organization of the care system network in terms of dealing with oral cancer patients in a city from the metropolitan region of the State of Rio de Janeiro.
MAIN GOAL
To analyze the practice of FHS dentists regarding the prevention and care of oral cancer.
SPECIFIC GOALS
To understand and describe the organization of the municipal health network in terms of the prevention and care with regard to oral cancer, and to identify the practices of FHS dentists in terms of coping with the disease.
METHOD
This will be a qualitative study which adopts a descriptive and exploratory approach. This research will be held in FHS units in a city which is a metropolitan region in the state of Rio de Janeiro. Data collection will take place between October and December 2015. All the dentists working in the FHS for at least six months (n=18) will be included in the study, in addition to city government managers with responsibility for the coordination of the FHS units (n=2) and the coordination of the oral health system in the city being studied (n=1). Professionals who are on vacation or leave are to be excluded from the study. Participants will be interviewed through the use of semi-structured questionnaires. The script will involve the consultation of data about the participants, as well as their professional experience in relation to coping with oral cancer in the FHS. Records are to be made using the researcher's field diary. In the second stage, and after partial analysis of the data collected in interviews, participants will be invited to join a focus group. Data will be submitted for thematic analysis in terms of the following steps: pre-analysis, processing and interpretation of the results. This study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the Antônio Pedro University Hospital/Fluminense Federal University, according to opinion number 1200998, on August 26th 2015.
REFERENCES
1. Instituto Nacional do Câncer (Brasil). Estimativa de câncer no Brasil 2014. Rio de Janeiro: INCA; 2014. [ cited 2014 Jan 23 ]. Available from: http://www.inca.gov.br/estimativa/2014/
2. Fabrício BS; Malena RFS; Clarissa PF; Paulo GBS; Ana PNNA. Oral cancer from a health promotion perspective: experience of a diagnosis network in Ceará. Braz. Oral res. 2014 June; 28(suppl).
3. Noonan B. Understanding the reasons why patients delay seeking treatment for oral cancer symptoms from a primary health care professional: an integrative literature review. Eur J Oncol Nurs. 2014 Feb; 18(1): 118-24.
All authors participated in the phases of this publication in one or more of the following steps, in According to the recommendations of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE, 2013): (a) substantial involvement in the planning or preparation of the manuscript or in the collection, analysis or interpretation of data; (b) preparation of the manuscript or conducting critical revision of intellectual content; (c) approval of the versión submitted of this manuscript. All authors declare for the appropriate purposes that the responsibilities related to all aspects of the manuscript submitted to OBJN are yours. They ensure that issues related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the article were properly investigated and resolved. Therefore, they exempt the OBJN of any participation whatsoever in any imbroglios concerning the content under consideration. All authors declare that they have no conflict of interest of financial or personal nature concerning this manuscript which may influence the writing and/or interpretation of the findings. This statement has been digitally signed by all authors as recommended by the ICMJE, whose model is available in http://www.objnursing.uff.br/normas/DUDE_eng_13-06-2013.pdf
Received: 09/15/2015
Revised: 11/03/2015
Approved: 11/03/2015