Dental surgeons’ profile and the monitoring of oral health indicators in counties belonging to the 1st health regional unit in Pará State, Brazil
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21722/rbps.v22i1.25861Keywords:
Oral health, Health Evaluation, Primary Health Care, Health Status IndicatorsAbstract
Introduction:
Knowing the profile of health professionals highlights the health reality of the territory, becoming a strategic tool to understand and assist in the work process and decision making. Objective: Analyzing dental surgeons’ profile and the monitoring of oral health indicators in counties belonging to the 1st Regional Health Unit in Pará State. Methods: Cross-sectional study adopted to analyze microdata deriving from the external evaluation of the 2nd cycle of the National Program for Improving the Access to, and the Quality of, Primary Care. The total sample comprised 44 professionals working in oral health teams of the 1st Regional Health Unit in Pará State. Microdata were generated based on a Ministry of Health - validated instrument that was applied to dental surgeons from 2013 to 2014. Variables were grouped into four analysis categories, namely: professional qualification, professional performance, planning/monitoring and care provided to users. Results: 61.4% of the investigated dental surgeons had postgraduate degree, mainly in masters and residency fields that were not associated with the Family Health Strategy; 97.7% of them were hired through direct management processes. Only 45.5% of these professionals reported to monitor and analyze oral health indicators. More than half of the investigated professionals did not know whether they had record of suspected or confirmed oral cancer cases in the unit. Conclusion: Dental surgeons’ profiles have evidenced professionals who were mainly qualified outside the primary health care field, whose contract modalities often weaken professional ties and lead to staff turnover. There was deficient monitoring of oral health indicators and of records of suspected / confirmed patients with oral cancer, a fact that reinforced the need of improving the origin and quality of data available in the health information system.
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