Continuing education in healthcare as a strategy for occupational safety in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic: reflections on the role of community healthcare agents in construction of care

Abstract

Community healthcare agents are strategic professionals in delivery of Primary Healthcare activities. This article reflects on the role of continuing education in healthcare as a strategic element in ensuring the occupational health of community healthcare agents faced with combating and managing coronavirus 19 disease (COVID-19). In the current scenario, the work of community healthcare agents is undergoing daily reconstruction of professional practice in order to keep pace with the living territories to which they are assigned. Continuing education in healthcare enables construction of feasible scenarios that make problem solving possible, involving a constant reflective analytical perception of professional practices, permitting (re)construction of social skills such as the capacity to mobilize and motivate other actors to participate in political action. Through problematization, identification of needs, and questioning, continuing education in healthcare leads to (de)construction of the working practices of the very actors who are delivering care. Furthermore, continuing education in healthcare reaffirms the importance of the social, technical, and political training of community healthcare agents, thereby confirming their right to dignified and quality work. In a pandemic scenario, an agenda focused on continuing education in healthcare is essential to the continuity of care delivery to communities, facilitating expansion of access to the right to health.