[Work process of community health agents: possibilities and limits]

The current study is aimed at getting to know and analyzing the work process of community health agents (CHA) from a municipality of the Northeastern region of the state of Rio Grande do Sul through a qualitative approach. The collection of data was carried out by means of a semi-structured interview applied to 23 CHAs. The Thematic Content Analysis was utilized for the data analysis. The results evidenced some possibilities, such as: communication with the participating families, establishing bonds, and recognition of/satisfaction towards the professional agent by the community; and among some of the limits were: difficulty to perform team work; difficulty to perform collective tasks in the community; low salary/work overload and lack of qualification. Evidence shows the need of reorganizing the work process of these professionals with higher investment in education and instrumentation by adopting a permanent educational policy.