THE ROLE OF NURSES IN PRIMARY HEALTH CARE IN THE MANAGEMENT OF CHRONIC NONCOMMUNICABLE DISEASES AS A STRATEGY TO REDUCE THE DEMAND FOR HIGH-COMPLEXITY HEALTH SERVICES

Abstract

Chronic Noncommunicable Diseases (NCDs) represent an important public health problem, being responsible for high morbidity and mortality rates and for the increasing demand on health services. In this context, Primary Health Care (PHC) stands out as a fundamental strategy for health promotion, disease prevention, and continuous monitoring of users affected by chronic diseases. This study aimed to describe the role of nurses in Primary Health Care in the management of Chronic Noncommunicable Diseases as a strategy to reduce the demand for medium and high complexity services. This is an integrative literature review with a descriptive and qualitative approach, carried out through searches in Google Scholar, Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO), and the Virtual Health Library (VHL), using the descriptors “Nurse”, “Primary Health Care”, and “Chronic Noncommunicable Diseases”, associated with the Boolean operator AND. The results showed that nurses play a fundamental role in longitudinal follow-up, health education, promotion of self-care, prevention of complications, and strengthening the relationship between health teams and users. Challenges related to work overload, lack of resources, and difficulties in treatment adherence were also identified. It is concluded that strengthening the role of nurses in PHC significantly contributes to improving patients’ quality of life and reducing the overload of higher complexity services.