[Agents of nursing in São Paulo health practices: from the bacteriological model to the health program (1889-1983)]

Nurses' clinical practice in primary care: a process under construction

This study aims to present the re-signification process of the meanings of nurses' clinical practice in primary care from the perspective of extended clinic and permanent education. An intervention research was carried out with the approval of an ethics committee. Nine nurses participated in reflection groups from September to December 2008 in Ribeirão Preto-SP-Brazil. The redefinition process of the meanings proposed by the institutional analysis was mapped. The results point out that the nurses perceive differences in clinical work, by acknowledging the sense of user-centered clinical practice; daily limits and tensions and the need for support from managers and the team to deal with users' problems and situations. They identify the necessity to open space in the schedule to do that. It was concluded that nurses' clinical practice is being consolidated, and that collective analysis processes permit learning and the reconstruction of practices.

Tuberculosis contact control in Brazil: a literature review (1984-2004)

This study aims to review plans for tuberculosis control through the analysis of measures for tuberculosis contact tracing in Brazil from 1984 to 2004. This article presents a literature review on tuberculosis control published in manuals of the Ministry of Health and the State Department of Health of Sao Paulo, and in Medline and Lilacs databases. There was a gap in the standardization of control measures in the decade from 1984 to 1994. It was concluded that health professionals need to incorporate TB control and prevention actions from the perspective of health surveillance and systematic monitoring.