Abstract
This article analyzes the impacts of the implementation of neoliberal reforms and managerialism devices with private social organizations acting in the management of the public sector on the work process, professional training and subjectivity of community health workers. The study problematizes the principles of productivism, meritocracy and performativity in the ideology of managerialism applied to health. This is a qualitative study with an action-research approach. Individual interviews were carried out with ten community health workers from a family health unit in the municipality of Rio de Janeiro, state of Rio de Janeiro, Brasil. The data was interpreted using the content analysis technique, and the discussion of the results was organized into five categories: Challenges in the neoliberal context; The issue of professional training; Working conditions; Subjectivity in the work context; and Political practices of accommodation and resistance. The results showed the various forms of contestation against neoliberal policies in the organization of work. In the tension and contradictions of everyday work, subjects make and remake themselves, accommodate, adapt or resist, feel pleasure and suffer. The conclusion is that there is a need to strengthen spaces for listening, welcoming and dialogue, promoting critical training for community health workers and strengthening their articulating, educating and mobilizing role.
Keywords
neoliberal reforms; community health worker; working conditions; professional training; unified health system