Resumo

DANDICOURT THOMAS, Caridad; MACKENZIE SARRIA, Yolaisi  e  TORRES ESPERON, Maricela. Observation of the functions of a community nursing specialist in practice. Rev Cubana Enfermer [online]. 2012, vol.28, n.3, pp. 228-242. ISSN 0864-0319.

Introduction: the nature of nursing since its inception derives from the need of taking care of the people's health. This statement has supported the contributions of this staff in order to improve the population's health. Previous studies demonstrated that there was no agreement between the functions approved in the Resolution 396/07 of the Ministry of Public Health and the preparation of the community nursing staffs during their formation process. As a result, a new proposal of functions, which was considered better from the quantitative and qualitative viewpoint, was submitted. Objectives: to check in practice the functions that are really fulfilled by these professionals in their performance. Method: an observational and descriptive study was carried out in family physician and nurse's offices in La Habana province during the year 2011. An expert-validated observational guide was used. The observers and the sample to be observed were then selected and the direct observation in practice was made. Results: it was confirmed that most of the submitted functions were fulfilled; out of the 54 proposed functions, 52 were performed: 40 assistance-type, 6 educational, 2 administrative and 4 research. Conclusions: the majority of expert-validated functions were confirmed in practice, being the assistance-type predominant. This underlines the need of making the new proposed functions official.

Palavras-chave : nursing; nursing functions; nursing specialist; primary health care.

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