Lessons learned from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil on primary-care workplace learning groups

Abstract

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil had a major impact on face-to-face permanent education for health (PEH) workplace learning groups in primary care. Aims: The aim of the study was to explore how PEH groups in primary care changed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: A qualitative exploratory evaluation study was conducted with six key participants, who answered semi-structured questions in on-line interviews. Results: The PEH groups rapidly and successfully implemented an online approach using social media. The role of the coordinator changed from being a facilitator to an information broker for navigating the large volume of conflicting information and misinformation. Conclusions: The findings highlight the importance of being an agile organisation, with a ‘bottom-up’ approach to innovation, and the key role of having an information broker in rapidly changing and complex environments. An appreciation of the importance of the socio-technical system for technology implementation in an organisation was also highlighted, with the use of technologies that are familiar to members of the organisation.

Primary healthcare in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative interview study in Sweden

“… 33 Various solutions to the problem of information overload in PHC have been proposed. de Carvalho et al 34 described how a new work task, an information broker, was created in PHC in Brazil to navigate the large amount of conflicting and occasionally inaccurate information. Receiving and interpreting information could be very stressful according to the participants in our study.…”