Team meetings for co-management and health education: a comparative study between service modalities

Abstract

Team meetings have historically been incorporated into healthcare units, especially those with a territorial and community-based approach. However, they have faced a process of precarization. This study comparatively analyzes the organization of team meetings in Basic Health Units (UBS) and Psychosocial Care Centers (CAPS) in relation to their limitations and possibilities for operating as mechanisms for improving work performance and Permanent Health Education (PHE) in the municipality of São Paulo. This is a qualitative research supported by a critical hermeneutic and narrative approach that used participant observation with field diary entries and semi-structured interviews with key actors from two BHU and two CAPS for data collection. The diversity of arrangements and modes of operation of the meetings is evident, as well as tensions between their potential as a collective space for co-management, critical reflection, and learning at work, and their capture by productivist and bureaucratic logics. It was observed that meetings were more sustained in CAPS, while in BHU difficulties related to care overload and maintaining the frequency of meetings predominated. It is concluded that team meetings are strategic for the management of interprofessional work and for PHE, provided they are institutionally protected and supported by political-pedagogical intentionality.