Português
Over the past two decades, the Portuguese public health sector has been marked by processes of managerialization inspired by the principles of New Public Management, which have introduced models oriented toward efficiency, contracting mechanisms, and performance-based management. Although the literature points to economic gains, critical gaps remain regarding the impact of these models on the quality, humanization, and effectiveness of care, particularly in professions centered on relational work and the protection of vulnerable populations, such as Hospital Social Work.
This project aims to analyse how managerialization within the Portuguese National Health Service (SNS), particularly in Public Enterprise Entities (E.P.E.) - namely Local Health Units (ULS) and the Portuguese Oncology Institutes (IPO) - influences professional identity, technical autonomy, perceptions of care effectiveness, and the quality of Hospital Social Work interventions, while also considering the well-being of social workers. It further seeks to understand how experience across different governance models over time - including former Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) or direct public administration - influences the current perceptions of professionals who now work within E.P.E. organizations. This perspective allows for the examination of whether professional trajectories across different management models, either within the same organization or throughout a career, contribute to differences in professional identity, technical autonomy, and perceived effectiveness of care.
The study will adopt a comparative quantitative design, using validated instruments to assess professional identity, ethical conflicts, perceived effectiveness, quality and humanization of care, motivation, job satisfaction, and burnout. The analysis will include multivariate statistical techniques aimed at constructing explanatory models regarding the mediating role of professional autonomy and ethical–deontological values in the relationship between managerialization and care outcomes.
The results are expected to contribute to scientific knowledge and to the development of organizational and public policy recommendations that simultaneously promote efficiency, quality, humanization of care, and the sustainability of professional practice within the SNS, at a critical moment of reorganization of public health organizations, including E.P.E. entities, particularly ULS and IPO.
Research team:
Principal Investigator: Cláudia Rosa
Researchers: Inês Espírito Santo; Jorge Ferreira e Patrícia Pinto.
| Research Centre | Research Group | Role in Project | Begin Date | End Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CIES-Iscte | Gender, Life Course and Health | Partner | 2026-03-01 | 2026-12-31 |
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| Name | Affiliation | Role in Project | Begin Date | End Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jorge Manuel Leitão Ferreira | Professor Catedrático (DCPPP); Integrated Researcher (CIES-Iscte); | Researcher | 2026-03-01 | 2026-12-31 |
| Maria Inês E. Santo | Associate Researcher (CIES-Iscte); | Researcher | 2026-03-01 | 2026-12-31 |
| Sandra Patrícia Pinto | Research Assistant (CIES-Iscte); | Researcher | 2026-03-01 | 2026-12-31 |
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With the objective to increase the research activity directed towards the achievement of the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, the possibility of associating scientific projects with the Sustainable Development Goals is now available in Ciência_Iscte. These are the Sustainable Development Goals identified for this project. For more detailed information on the Sustainable Development Goals, click here.
