Matrix support strategies: the experience of two Family Health Support Centers (NASFs) in São Paulo, Brazil.

The aim of Family Health Support Centers (NASFs) is to expand and qualify primary health care initiatives. Working together with Family Health Teams (EqSFs) they use matrix support strategies. This paper discusses how NASF professionals develop their work, emphasizing how matrix support approaches are appropriated and incorporated into daily working practices. The results that are presented are based on a case study of the work process of NASFs in a region of the city of São Paulo, Brazil. In order to investigate this issue, specific questions were introduced at different stages of the ergonomic work analysis. The implementation of the NASF, without a review of the guidance documents provided by the EqSF, created the following paradoxes: the different requirements of productivity and the working strategies between the NASF and the EqSF; the different demands of care for the population and different priorities for action, which were reflected in the division of tasks and the time allocated to each of them, etc. The practices that have been accumulated since the creation of the NASF suggests a review of these documents in order to transform the organization of planned work of these organizations in order to create better conditions for shared working practices.