WORK, SUFFERING AND ILLNESS: THE REALITY OF COMMUNITY HEALTH AGENTS IN SOUTHERN BRAZIL

Abstract The aim of this study was to analyze how community health agents evaluate the work context and possible factors that contribute to their suffering/illness. This was a cross-sectional, descriptive, quantitative-qualitative study carried out with health agents from 13 municipalities in the central region of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, in 2014. The ‘Work and Risk of Illness Inventory’ sociodemographic questionnaire and interview were used to collect data. The data were analyzed through content analysis. The situations of suffering were related to the lack of professional recognition, an excessive pace, work overload, conflicts with the community, lack of resolution of actions, unavailability of materials and inputs, in addition to the geographic location of the health unit and of the users’ homes, type of health strategy, and management. It was concluded that the health agent’s working environment can cause suffering/illness among these workers.

摘要 本研究旨在分析社区卫生工作者（community health agents）对自身工作环境的评估情况，以及导致其产生身心痛苦或罹患疾病的潜在影响因素。本研究为横断面描述性混合研究（定量-定性结合），于2014年针对巴西南里奥格兰德州中部地区13个市镇的社区卫生工作者开展。研究采用《工作与疾病风险量表（Work and Risk of Illness Inventory）》、社会人口学问卷与访谈法收集数据，并通过内容分析法对所得数据进行分析。结果显示，引发社区卫生工作者身心痛苦的相关因素包括职业认同感缺失、工作节奏过快、工作负荷过重、与服务社区产生冲突、工作举措缺乏有效落地性、物资与耗材供给不足，此外还涉及卫生服务单元与服务对象居所的地理位置、卫生服务策略类型及管理模式等。本研究最终得出结论：社区卫生工作者所处的工作环境可能引发其身心痛苦或罹患疾病。