Importance of Nasf to face the pandemic caused by the new coronavirus in Primary Care: experience report

Abstract

Based on the new PHC funding model in 2019, the Núcleo de Apoio à Saúde da Família had its normative instruments revoked, interrupting new accreditations and releasing municipalities to maintain their teams. In the municipality of Jardim de Piranhas, located in the state of Rio Grande do Norte, the Nasf was dissolved and its professionals were separated and inserted in each Basic Health Unit, remaining as the Expanded Nucleus of Family Health and Primary Care Team. With the pandemic caused by the new coronavirus, Primary Care should once again be organized. In this perspective, the present study sought to report the experience and importance of a Nasf team in the AB actions to face the pandemic, based on the information collected through the minutes books, records and notes available at the UBS, and mainly from the reflective field diary . The performance of a team following the guidelines of the Nasf policy was essential for the implementation and effectiveness of proposals for strengthening services and reorienting the work process at the UBS, developing quality care based on shared and collaborative work, in the co-management of the care, permanent education, innovation in health through information and communication technologies, always placing users, families and communities at the center of health care. The importance of Nasf for a well-structured and strengthened PC was evidenced, as it increases its potential for coping and resistance in the face of various health challenges, including those of global proportions such as that caused by COVID-19.