Potencialidade da Educação Permanente na Qualificação do Cuidado em Tuberculose

The National Policy for Permanent Education in Health represents a milestone for the formation and improvement of workin health in Brazil. It is a strategy of the Unified Health System (SUS) that seeks to promote the transformation of practices inthe sector. The aim of this study was to understand how permanent health education (PHE) and its concepts are perceivedby primary health care (PHC) professionals, involved in the treatment of tuberculosis (TB) and identify the possible barriersto their general understanding and use in the qualification process of municipal assistance. This was a survey-deriveddescriptive epidemiological study with a quantitative approach, with the application of an instrument to assess the degreeof agreement, using the Likert Scale with PHC professionals. The data were analyzed statistically by the XLSTAT® software.To achieve independence between the questions and the variables evaluated, the Chi-square test was performed. Thestatements showed distorted perceptions of PHE. The most relevant data denote difficulty in relating professional practiceto the teaching process, this is also reflected in actions to deal with neglected diseases; among which is TB. In this context,for PHE to be an instrument of critical analysis of knowledge concerning the local reality, and be effectively applied in anobjective way, it needs to be thought-out and adapted; especially when the focus is on diseases historically relegated tothe background.