THE PERFORMANCE OF COMMUNITY HEALTH WORKERS IN THE FAMILY HEALTH STRATEGY IN RURAL AREAS

Abstract

The Community Health Workers (CHWs) perform the initial care in households, in order to collect information and interact in a healthy way with the community. It is important to understand the role that these professionals perform in rural areas, as their duties are of fundamental importance within the Family Health Strategy (FHS). Given this, the present study seeks, through a narrative review, to find scientific evidence and information in the available literature regarding the difficulties and challenges of CHW's work in rural areas. After surveying and collecting the results, 15 articles were selected, which showed that the difficulties faced by the CHWs who work in the Family Health Strategy (FHS) in the rural area are mainly related to 1) difficulty of access to rural families, 2) overload of tasks inherent to other professionals of the ESF, 3) low qualification and 4) little recognition. Even with all these difficulties, it was proven that the role of this professional is of extreme significance in promoting health actions and improving the quality of life in the communities in which they act. This study concludes that these professionals have changed the reality of many communities; and that they can optimize their potential in promoting health in rural areas through public policies and initiatives that contribute to minimizing the difficulties related to their work standards.