Profile of the primary health care workers in the municipality of São Paulo: north and central regions of the city

Abstract

Research conducted by São Paulo's Observatory of Human Resources in Health in 2009. It investigated 87 unidades básicas de saúde (UBS - primary care units) located in the north and central regions of the city of São Paulo. OBJECTIVE: to survey the profile of the UBS workers. The UBS were organized under different models: Health Programs, Family Health and mixed. METHODOLOGY: information about the universe of 4,968 workers was surveyed in the SMSSP (Municipal Health Department of São Paulo) and interviews were conducted with a sample of 621 workers through the ETAC System (Computer-Assisted Telephone Interview). RESULTS: 80.7% of the interviewees were women, but only 56.4% among the physicians; 50.5% were aged 21-40 years and 49.1% were aged 41-60 years; 61.4% were born in the city of São Paulo; a great deal of them presented a higher level of schooling than what was required to perform the functions; in the superior level, 13.9% were physicians; in the middle level, 21.3% were nursing assistants; and in the operational level, 20.7% were ACS (Community Health Agents); 40.1% had been working at the UBS for more than five years, 12.9% for more than 10 years and 6.3% for more than 20 years; 64.7% worked only at the UBS, 46.7% had had a previous experience in the hospital area; 92.3% of those who worked at the Health Programs UBS were statutory civil servants, and 77% of those of the Family Health UBS were hired through Brazil's Labor Laws, by the partner institutions of the SMSSP. CONCLUSIONS: predominance of female workers; process of consolidation and renewal of the quota of workers; the majority was born in the city of São Paulo and had a level of schooling that was higher than what was required for the function; predominance of doctors, nursing assistants and community health agents; outsourced contracts of employment.