[Theoretical review of the work process in health care used to analyze work in the Family Health Program in Brazil]

Abstract

This literature review focused on the work process in health care, particularly issues linked to the Family Health Program. Since 1994, the Program has rapidly expanded health coverage for the Brazilian population, and as a result the Program's work force has also increased. The Program thus requires attention, allocation of responsibilities, and contributions of various types by stakeholders and institutions. The work occurs in the services sector, within a neoliberal scenario. Work in health care shares some characteristics with other occupations in the services sector, such as bureaucratization, the influence of capitalist division of labor, and difficulties in teamwork, in addition to little regard for the subjectivity of health system clients and workers. The study particularly focuses on work conditions of family health teams in Brazil, including strategies for revitalizing health care work and coping with alienating conditions in the work process. Finally, the study reiterates the dialectic condition of the work process in health care under the Family Health Program, with its possibilities for success, conceived and functioning in the midst of contradictions and difficulties.