Nurses and Paramedic Staff as Drivers of Therapy Adherence: An Ethnographic Research in Catamarca, Argentina

Abstract

Objectives: The main objective of this article is to analyze the role of the local nurses and paramedics in the Valle del Cajon region, Catamarca, Argentina, focusing on their intervention in the patients’ therapy adherence. Content: Arising from the use of a qualitative methodology with an ethnographic approach, the results stated are obtained from open interviews in multiple sessions, participant observation, lm recording and eld logbooks. The research shows that the high value that local people bestow on nurses and paramedics, as well as other health workers, their successful intervention in therapeutic itineraries, their knowledge about the ways to conceive the process of health and native diseases, their attachment to the local social organization, their intervention as cultural mediators between local people and doctors, their expertise in handling the local pharmacopoeia and their active participation in issues beyond the health system, among others, constitute instances that sustain therapy adherence. Conclusions: The research results show that nurses and paramedics are key actors in APS and their everyday practice in Valle del Cajón, which constitutes a decisive support as to the monitoring of therapeutic treatments.