The family health program: motivation, training and work according to physicians acting at three districts of the city of Duque de Caxias, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Abstract

The study analyzed how physicians working in Programa Saúde da Família (PSF - Family Health Program) perceive their professional practice in the municipality of Duque de Caxias, state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with fifteen physicians working in the first, third and fourth districts. The first district is urban and the others, rural. Data was analyzed by content analysis, and the nuclear senses found were associated with motivation and training to carry out the job, and the opportunity the Program offers to establish close personal bonds between physicians and patients, reinforcing the capacity to listen and accountability. The results showed that: a) the great majority resent what their colleagues think about them; b) the offered training is essentially theoretical; c) bonding, capacity to listen and accountability are advances and professional achievements; d) the modern occidental medical rationality is the base of the practice, health being the absence of disease. It can be said that there is a gap between reality and the government's intention of making PSF become a path to reorient the Brazilian health system.