O ensino sobre saúde do idoso nos cursos técnicos de enfermagem do Brasil

Abstract

Population aging is a worldwide phenomenon and the multi-professional health team, of which the nursing technician is a member, needs to be trained to provide integral care to the elderly. This cross-sectional descriptive, exploratory study with a quantitative approach aimed to analyze the scenario of teaching about the health of the elderly in Technical Nursing Courses in Brazil. It was developed with 85 courses registered in the National Information System of Vocational and Technological Education of the Ministry of Education and with pedagogical projects available in institutional web pages. It was approved by the Ethics Committee for Research with Human Beings of the Federal University of the Triângulo Mineiro, under protocol number 4,741,457. The data were submitted to descriptive analysis, mean, standard deviation, Student's t test and Fisher's Exact test (p < 0.001). The results showed that 75.3% of Technical Nursing Courses are in the Southeast; 70.6% are from the Federal Network; 54.1% are public; 30.6% are subsequent; 92.9% are on-site; 14.1% alternate day/night shifts and are offered annually. Thus, 28.2% have admission through a selection process described in the Pedagogical Project of the Courses; 65.9% of the Projects were published in 2020. The average duration of the courses is two years (± 0.272); average number of vacancies 34.12 (± 4.352); average theoretical workload 1,232.31 hours (± 56.849) and internship 586.45 hours (± 84.306). Regarding the courses on elderly health, 98.8% of the courses offer one subject; 60.0% are mixed; 35.3% are taught in the second period/semester/module and 24.7% have an internship on this subject. On average, the workload of the specific subject is 43.97 hours (± 8.623); the workload of the mixed subject 1 is 127.42 hours (± 35.277) and of the mixed subject 2 is 67.00 hours. Public policies are addressed in 49.4% of the mixed subjects' menus; morphophysiological changes in the aging process and Non-transmissible Chronic Diseases are in 34.1% of the specific subjects' contents. Public institutions have more theoretical course hours than private ones (p ≤ 0.001). Among the courses in public institutions, there was more description of the form of entry in the Pedagogical Projects than in private ones (p < 0.001). Public institutions have Technical Nursing Courses with specific subjects about elderly health, while the private ones have mixed subjects (p < 0.001). It is concluded that the training of the Nursing Technician in gerontological care presents gaps caused by the lack of content, especially related to health promotion and Active and/or Healthy Aging. It is necessary to reformulate the Pedagogical Projects and discipline plans so that, in the future, the elderly will be fully assisted by this professional. The lack of information in pedagogical documents and in institutional websites, as well as the difficulties of access to the institutions and Course Coordinators constituted weaknesses for this study. This research contributed to reiterate the relevance of teaching about the health of the elderly in the training of Nursing Technicians, who constitute the largest portion of the Nursing category in Brazil. It is hoped that it can motivate similar research in view of the current and future changes resulting from population aging.