Shared practices among primary health care workers: A time-motion study.

Area of Science:

• Health Services Research
• Primary Health Care
• Teamwork in Healthcare

Background:

• Shared activities among health workers are vital for improving population health, patient experience, and team well-being.
• Effective collaboration enhances the overall quality and effectiveness of healthcare delivery.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify and analyze shared activities performed by Primary Health Care (PHC) team members.
• To differentiate between multiprofessional and uniprofessional team practices in PHC.

Main Methods:

• A descriptive study utilizing the time-motion technique was conducted in São Paulo, Brazil.
• Direct observations of Family Health Teams (FHT), Oral Health Teams (OHT), and Multiprofessional Teams (MultiT) were performed between 2021 and 2022.
• Data included frequency and duration of shared activities and information exchange among workers.

Main Results:

• Out of 21,936 observed activities, 27.10% were shared, with multiprofessional teams accounting for 63.9% of these.
• Shared activities consumed 26.26% of the total observation time.
• Nurses in FHT and dentists in uniprofessional settings showed high engagement in shared practices, with FHT dedicating 80% of their time to shared activities.

Conclusions:

• Multiprofessional work in PHC serves as a foundation for interprofessional collaboration.
• Current PHC indicators primarily focus on individual activities, necessitating a re-evaluation to better capture and incentivize shared and collaborative practices.