O Facebook na pesquisa educacional e o seu potencial para a formação continuada de Agentes Comunitários de Saúde

Through a bibliometric analysis, we analyzed the extent of academic publications between the years 2008 to 2017 that used Facebook for educational purposes and with that to evaluate its potential for the continued formation of Community Health Workers, responsible for Primary Care in Health in the Family Health Strategy of the Brazilian Unified Health System. After reading the summaries of 208 articles collected from the Web of Science database and analyzed in the VantagePoint software, it is observed that Facebook has been used for educational purposes in the most diverse areas such as medicine, pharmacy, psychology and linguistics, also pointing to the growth of this social network in English-speaking countries From this, a survey was carried out with 58 Community Health Workers from the Municipality of Cachoeiras de Macacu with the aim of discovering health topics that were perceived as relevant for the continued training of these professionals. Videotapes and investigative cases were developed that were later evaluated by these professionals, indicating a positive perception regarding the content, language and duration of the videos. Social networks such as Facebook and YouTube have great potential as an educational platform for the training of health professionals, such as the Community Health Workers who demand for continuing education, given the incipient formation and multidisciplinary nature of their activity. Further studies should assess the adherence and impact of this type of training to these professionals.