Medical practice precariousness at the Unified Health System — SUS

Luiz Gonzaga Chiavegato Filho, Professor adjunto do Departamento de Psicologia da Universidade Federal de São João Del-Rei, São João Del-Rei, MG, Brazil

The doctoral thesis developed at Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto da Universidade de São Paulo, by the professor Luiz Gonzaga Chiavegato Filho, had as it main purpose to study the medical practice at the Unified Health System in Jaguariúna, a city in São Paulo state, Brazil. The present study aimed to make a close investigation about the physicians’ work organization and working conditions, and through this investigation identify possible health impacts suffered, as well as aspects that could contradict or hinder the professionals’ individual and collective development. The results and conclusions of this study are published in the first issue of 2017 of journal Estudos de Psicologia (Campinas) under the “Medical practice at the Unified Health System: When a professional activity calls for help”. The data gathered shows a marked decline of this professional activity due to the lack of work collective, professional identity weakness, and frustrated activity. Among the major associated health problems, hypertension and common mental disorders were identified. In this kind of work’s situations, rather than caring for people, it is necessary to take care of work in order to obtain advances related to workers’ health and to develop their capacity to act on their own activity.

In this study, 15 physicians, from different specialties, from Jaguariúna/SP Unidades Básicas de Saúde (Basic Health Units) and two managers from the Department of Health were interviewed in two stages. In the first stage, individual and open interviews were conducted with the 15 physicians and the 2 managers. In the second stage, five physicians who had already participated in the first stage of the study were again interviewed. However, at this stage, the interviews were based on self-confrontation techniques proposed by the Clinic of Activity.

Previous studies on medical work have already pointed to the high psychological overload and high incidence of common mental disorders. Besides that, they attested that changes occurred in the professional’s work organization during the last decades had repercussions on professional autonomy, remuneration, in their multiple employment links and work’s precariousness. Recognizing the job’s vitality importance may be the first step to the public policies development, which guide the health services management, in order to combat work activity’s precariousness and its degradation. It also means highlighting the importance of recognizing the employee’s action heterogeneity in work environments and their active role in organizing and developing activities.

References

CHIAVEGATO FILHO, L. G. Medical practice at the Unified Health System: When a professional activity calls for help. Estud. psicol. (Campinas) [online], 2017, vol.34, n.1, pp.63-73, ISSN 1982-0275 [viewed 22March 2017]. DOI: 10.1590/1982-02752017000100007. Available from: http://ref.scielo.org/92jdvz.

External Link

Estudos de Psicologia (Campinas) – ESTPSI – www.scielo.br/estpsi