Banca de DEFESA: MARIA DE FATIMA DE SOUZA

Knowledge and practices of Primary Health Care professionals in the care of people with Spinal Cord Injury

Spinal cord injury; Primary Health Care; Care Line; Education; SUS.

The spinal cord injury appears as a challenge for public health at a global level, since such a problem has had a great impact on the biopsychosocial context of the people who have such injuries, as well as their families, who require multidisciplinary care and at different levels of attention and complexity. Thus, the objective of this study is to understand the knowledge and practices of Primary Health Care professionals upon the care of people who live with spinal cord injury. This is a descriptive, exploratory study with a qualitative approach, which was carried out between November and December of 2020 with 12 professionals who worked in a Family Health Care Unit in Aparecida, located in the city of Natal, Rio Grande do Norte. For data collection, the Focus Group was used, and the data analysis took place under the light of Bardin's Content Analysis. This research was submitted and approved by the Ethics and Research Committee of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte. It was identified that the knowledge upon the care demands of people with spinal cord trauma is scarce, which results in fragmented care that falls short of the needs that such individuals have. It is suggested that permanent education actions on the topic should be carried out with professionals included in the context of Primary Health Care.