Shared management in emergency care services: mixed methods study

Objective: To analyze the management model adopted in Emergency Services in municipalities that are part of a Regional Health Department. Methods: Mixed methods study with a concomitantly incorporated design. It was conducted in 2017 with six managers and 223 health workers (physicians, nurses and nursing technicians/assistants) from ten Emergency Care Units in eight municipalities of the Regional Health Department XIII, São Paulo. The data collection instrument composed of six closed questions and four open questions was delivered to participants. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics; qualitative data were developed using the Collective Subject Discourse technique and analyzed using the DSCSoft® software. Results: There was a predominance of female professionals, 173 (75.2%), in the position of nursing assistants, 78 (33.9%). Managers evaluated the institution’s management model as contemporary and participatory, enabling workers to participate in decision making and giving them autonomy to decide on day-to-day issues, while workers evaluated it as traditional management, highlighting its formal structure. Conclusion: It was observed that managers and workers have a different view of the management model of health institutions. The assumptions of the shared management model encompass valuable concepts, such as dialogic communication, decentralization of power and greater autonomy for decision making. However, when analyzing the opinion of most workers who participated in this study, the wide use of a hierarchical model in institutions is still observed.