The pharmacist in the Brazilian primary health care: Insertion under construction

Abstract

The objective is to analyze the insertion of the pharmacists work in primary health care in Brazil. The search was performed on BVS, SciELO, Lilacs e Medline databases from 1998 to 2016. From the 157 articles found, excluding the duplicates, theses, dissertations and reviews, after the complete reading the review included 9 articles dealing with the pharmacist’s work describing experiences, attributions, potentialities, difficulties and challenges. Results show incipient production and predominance of qualitative studies starting in 2007. The insertion in the team is the central topic of the studies, pointing out the challenges and the difficulties related to the recognition and acceptance of the pharmacists interventions. The potentialities reside in the area of actions directed to the client, the families and the team, as well as in the professional training field as well as in the dissemination of the results of the pharmaceutical actions. The pharmacists’ isolation in the primary care prevails, albeit there are perspectives of strengthening the integration in the team that has been stimulated by the recent institutional and regulatory transformations in the national scenario. Beyond the present difficulties and experiences reported, the researchers focus on the potentialities for the professional practice, glancing at the construction of the future.