Barriers Faced by Nurses Acting in Primary Health Care: Brazilian Case Study

The performance of the nurses in the Primary Health Care is challenging, considering the structural weaknesses present and which affect the professional practices. This health care level is intended to coordinate the care, an activity based on Nursing, an area of crucial knowledge to be conducted, as recognized by the World Health Organization. The objective of this study was to know the barriers faced by nurses acting in the Basic Healthcare Units. A qualitative study was conducted from Bardin’s content analysis, supported by webQDA®, in order to disclose the meaning of two focal groups’ speeches, conducted with 13 nurses acting in Basic Healthcare Units of a Brazilian municipality. The speeches transcribed in a Word file were entered into the webQDA® considering the following empirical categories: ‘Identified Barriers’ and ‘Reality Overcoming’. The content analysis gave rise to the following subcategories: 1) Identified Barriers: Work Overload, Facing the Complex Health Needs and Deficit of resource availability; and 2) Reality Overcoming: Nursing as a Social Practice – which showed the effort of the nurses to provide the best service to the population, even under adverse conditions. The nurses’ work face barriers related to work overload, deficit of resource availability and response to complex needs. However, Nursing as a Social Practice is an element to provide reality overcoming, in face of the social inequalities they experience in the health service routine, denoting their power to strengthen the intersectoral actions and the political articulation of the nurses.