CONTINUING EDUCATION IN HEALTHCARE: BETWEEN THE TRANSFORMATION OF WORK AND MANAGERIAL LOGIC

Abstract

The growing complexity of health services and the need to strengthen management within Brazil’s Unified Health System (SUS) reinforce the importance of educational processes integrated into everyday work. This article analyzes Permanent Education in Health (PEH) as a strategic management tool, examining its relationships with planning, people management, knowledge management, and the transformation of work processes. This is a qualitative, bibliographic, and documentary study based on the regulatory framework of the National Policy for Permanent Education in Health (PNEPS), documents issued by the Brazilian Ministry of Health, and classical and recent scientific literature. The analysis shows that PEH differs from isolated training by taking concrete work-related problems as triggers for learning, collective reflection, and institutional change. The institutionalization of PNEPS, initiated by Ordinance GM/MS No. 198/2004 and reoriented by Ordinance GM/MS No. 1,996/2007, consolidated the integration of education, management, care, and social participation. Recent evidence, however, points to difficulties in institutionalization, confusion with continuing education, weaknesses in monitoring, and unequal capacity to manage educational processes. In light of Lemos (2016), the article discusses the tension between the critical-transformative character of PEH and its possible appropriation as a mechanism for adapting workers to organizational demands. It concludes that PEH can constitute a strategic management technology provided that it preserves participation, problematization, autonomy, and commitment to health needs, thereby avoiding its reduction to mere “permanent management”.