PSYCHIC EXHAUSTION ARISING FROM WORK IN COMMUNITY HEALTH AGENTS

Abstract

The theme of the article is the psychic exhaustion resulting from the work of community health agents, and to guide the analyses, the problem was defined as the survey of the relationships that can be established between the work developed by health agents and the psychic exhaustion. From there, the objective was to contextualize the theme of psychic exhaustion in the scope of psychopathology studies; reflect on working conditions and their stressors and analyze the performance of health agents. The choice of the theme was motivated by the professional practice of one of the authors, who works in a Basic Health Unit in the city of Areal/RJ and lives with community health agents where she can perceive the tasks developed, the anxieties, the accomplishments and the difficulties of the agents in the work environment. The text is based on the studies of Organizational Psychology, Psychopathology to consolidate the theme of psychic exhaustion and texts made available by the SUS on the health agent. Methodologically, it is a theoretical research, bibliographic based with consultations to scientific articles, as well as book chapters on the subject. It was considered as a result that the psychic exhaustion of the community health agents, resulting from the work they perform are related, in large part, to the working conditions that involve: emotional exhaustion, the result of the interpersonal relationships they experience; the lack of adequate equipment in the work environment; the fatigue generated by home visits to distant places of difficult access, among others.