Profile and knowledge of Brazilian Amazon Primary Health Care professionals on maternal and child health

Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate the social and professional profile and knowledge of Primary Care  professionals on maternal and child health. Cross- sectional descriptive study, from May to July 2018. It  included 30 nurses and 73 Community Health  Workers (CHW) from the municipality of Bragança,  Pará. The form had three phases: participants’ profile;  close-ended questions on their profile, knowledge  and resourcefulness on the First Week of Integral Care guideline; and four open-ended questions. Quantitative data was analyzed through Microsoft  Office ExcelTM 2016, as qualitative data was arranged  through word clouds and similarity trees in  IRaMuTeQTM. The majority of nurses and CHW were  female (70.9%) and worked in urban areas (60.2%), as  40% of nurses were graduated recently, with an 80%  specialization courses, and 83.6% CHW had  completed high school. On both categories, 82.5% did not know the First Week of Integral Health guideline,  although the word clouds and similarity trees had  shown that several national standardized orientations  were provided. First Week of Integral Care guidelines’  insufficient knowledge by nurses and CHW in the  municipality points to fragility in Primary Care on  maternal and child health. Although basic orientations are provided, improvement is necessary.