Continuing education experience for auxiliary nurses as a management strategy

Abstract

This paper describes the experience of continuing education for nursing assistants at a Maternal and Child Hospital from June to October 2012. It is a qualitative study whose data was collected through participant observation and recorded in a field diary following a specific roadmap. It focussed on the participants' attendance, on the use of action-reflection-action model and on evaluation. The project was approved by the research ethics committee of the School of Medicine of Marilia, under protocol No. 638/12. Data were analysed using thematic content analysis. Discussion of results used Paulo Freire's concepts (1987). After data analysis using units of meaning and categorization process, two main themes emerged, namely: experiencing action-reflection-action in continuing education groups; and weaknesses of the process of continuing education. Such experiences demonstrate that continuing education in the health services is a powerful strategy to promote changes in work processes, since continuing education programs contribute to a more active stance of individuals, promote co-management and the horizontality of power relations within institutions.