Abstract
This article aims to understand the motivations of Community Health Workers to seek higher education training and what are the implications for the performance of this category in the Unified Health System. This is a qualitative research, with triangulation of methods and analysis from the dialectical hermeneutics and critical aspect of the sociology of professions. The following categories emerged: a) affirmation or denial of the professional project; b) changes in power relations and new professional insertion. The motivations ranged from improving performance as a Community Health Workers, reversing the scenario of delegitimacy and the desire for social mobility. As implications, it is revealed that university education expands professional appreciation and social recognition, but not always associated with a new professional reintegration. The category does not envision its own training at the undergraduate level at the moment, pointing to the implementation of technical training as the next horizon.
Keywords:
Community health workers; Primary Health Care; Health human resource training; Health profession