Permanent education in primary health care: perception of local health managers.

Objectives: To know the health education strategies advocated and developed for workers of primary care, in the view of managers.

Method: The study is characterized as a qualitative, descriptive and exploratory research. A semistructured interview was used to collect data. The sample population was chosen intentionally, with an audience of 26 municipal health managers ascribed to a regional health coordination office, located in the north/northwest of the Rio Grande do Sul State.

Results: The thematic analysis allowed the construction of two empirical categories: educational strategies, compartmentalized, discontinuous and with technicist bases; and the insipience/absence of educational proposals.

Final Considerations: The results show a reality that needs to be transformed by all people involved in health work process: teachers and students, users, members of health councils, workers and managers. Realistically, there is a quest for change in services, to qualify the comprehensiveness of health care.