Competências do enfermeiro de cuidados gerais em cuidados de saúde primários

Abstract

The skills of the nurse may be developed since the start level, at the moment of its integration in a service, until it reaches the highest level of expertise, if there are favorable factors for this process (Benner, 2001). Being the ideology of primary health care present in the guiding principles of nursing, this environment should be conducive to development. Based on the framework of the skills of the general care nurse (OE 2003), we pretend to describe what skills are the most and least understood and implemented by the general care nurse in primary health care as well as identify the actions that materialize it. This is a descriptive exploratory study of quantitative nature of a sample of 46 general care nurses working in primary health care, which data were collected through a questionnaire made up of a range of skills of the general care nurse (ECECG), type Likert (1-3), and through open-ended responses. The results revealed a good internal consistency of ECECG with a Cronbach's alpha between 0.83 and 0.97. There is a positive correlation between the skills understood and implemented in the variables understand and realize, being the skills more understood than realized. The skills more understood and realized mostly belong to the realm of professional practice, ethical and legal, which are operationalized through actions related to the protection of the customer right, the management of the clinical process, the appropriate information to the client and act in accordance with orientation lines. The competencies less achieved relate to the participation in programs of continuous quality improvement and performance in disaster situations. The understanding of skills is an important resource for their accomplishment. It is concluded that investigate the skills concerning their understanding and implementation, including the actions developed in this context, it is essential to better know the fine practices of nurses. However, it is important to take into account the factors, internal and external, that influence the development of skills when we analyze this process in order to find strategies to improve the quality of care.

Date of Award	2012
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	João Luís Alves Apóstolo (Supervisor) & Maria Henriqueta de Jesus Silva Figueiredo (Co-Supervisor)