Ten years of the National Occupational Health Policy and the challenges of health education for (trans)formation of work

Abstract

This theoretical article aims to discuss health training by taking as a reference the National Worker’s Health Policy (PNSTT), which celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2022. This critical reflection is based on a literature review and on the authors’ professional experience in teaching, research and services in the field of Collective Health/Occupational Health. The PNSTT advocates for the training and development of the mid and higher-level health workforce, with priority given to Health Surveillance and Primary Care/Family Health Strategy teams. Health education must consider work in its ontogenetic function, entangled in the capitalist system that paradoxically transforms it into an affirmation and denial of the subject: through work we become human and under the rules of capital, work becomes risky and unhealthy. Training gives rise to the construction of joint strategies and permanent dialogue between workers and other social actors, from planning to implementation, and the subsequent evaluation of training projects in health, work and environment. Acting in a democratic, collective and organized way, it is possible to reinvent concrete practices of education and work from the perspective of citizen formation.

Keywords:  learning; continuing education; health education; occupational health policy; occupational health