SciELO - Scientific Electronic Library Online

 
vol.9 issue2The Brazilian media’s role in the construction of the social representations of food-safetyDiagnostic strategies and psychological assessment author indexsubject indexarticles search
Home Pagealphabetic serial listing  

Psicologia: teoria e prática

Print version ISSN 1516-3687

Abstract

GOMES, Antonio Marcos Tosoli; OLIVEIRA, Denize Cristina de  and  SA, Celso Pereira de. Nursing in the unified health system (SUS): retinking the principles and concepts underlying health care in Brazil. Psicol. teor. prat. [online]. 2007, vol.9, n.2, pp. 109-125. ISSN 1516-3687.

This study examines the make-up and state-of-the-art of the Unified Health System on the basis of representations among nurses at health institutions in Rio de Janeiro, with a view to identifying and characterizing health policies as actually implemented and the various practices employed in the municipality. The theory of representations and social memory was applied to 20 nurses at 5 institutions. Data collected in interviews were analyzed using ALCESTE 4.7 software. The results were organized into two thematic blocks: how the system is organized and constituted in representations, in terms of the classes “human resource policy” and “the process of anchoring the SUS”. The system is organized to meet demand, comprising the classes “care in the context of the SUS” and “hierarchization of health system actions”. It concludes that nurses are of the utmost importance in implementing the SUS and that the theoretical frame of reference used is appropriate.

Keywords : Nursing; Health systems; Qualitative research; Representations; Social memory.

        · abstract in Portuguese | Spanish     · text in Portuguese     · Portuguese ( pdf )