The social representation of dot by healthcare professionals from Guarulhos, Sao Paulo, Brazil

Setting
Public healthcare unities (HCU) from the municipality of Guarulhos in the State of Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Objective
Analyzing the individual perception of healthcare professionals (HCP) related to ‘supervised treatment’ (DOT) offered by Healthcare Service.
Methodology
A qualitative methodology, the Collective Discourse (CD) allows capturing a pool of social representations, gathering responses from different individuals with discourse content of similar sense to build collective statements.
Results
Considering answers by 21 HCP, in two questions about DOT – ‘What is DOT?’ and ‘Tell about it on a daily basis in his/her job?’ the central ideas presented were: Question 1, (A) to give, to follow-up and to verify patient taking TB drugs (85.7%); (B) to support and welcome the patient (9.5%); and (C) to guide about TB and its treatment (23.8%). Question 2, (A) is normal: controlling intake of TB drugs by patients (9.5%); (B) is became an habit: welcoming patients (23.8%); (C) chatting, explaining and solving doubts of patients about TB treatment (23.8%); (D) managing the HCU quotidian to DOT (19.1%); (E) there are difficulties on job routine, few healthcare workers to attend patients (4.8%); (F) missing of specific training (4.8%); (G) to adapt the treatment to different patient realities (28.6%); (H) to fill forms (9.5%); and (I) a personal accomplishment (9.5%).
Conclusions
Healthcare professionals express correct concepts about DOT supposing they have had adequate training with concepts of fulfilling, welcoming, flexibility and incorporation into routine.