Developing community partnerships for primary healthcare: An integrative review on management challenges

Objectives: The aim of this review was to identify healthcare management barriers, challenges and obstacles in the development of health partnerships in community intervention projects. Methods: We conducted an integrative review using the following data sources: PubMed, B-on, Medline and EBSCOhost. The keywords in the search were: Health Partnerships AND Community Health AND Primary Health Care. We grouped results based on six categories: Environment; Membership; Process and structure; Purpose; Communication; Resources. Findings: The search conducted identified 844 articles. After being submitted to the first filter, and applying the exclusion and inclusion criteria, a total of 56 were reviewed. Of these, 44 dealt with aspects relating to Environment. In 53 articles it was referred that the relationship partners were key to the development of partnerships. Factors relating to the process of collaboration were found in 45, while factors related to structural elements were mentioned in 40 articles. 31 identified factors relating to purpose. Communication was highly discussed, appearing in 34 articles. Factors relating to resources were given great importance in the literature, appearing in 48. In 23, the subject of leadership. Conclusions: The literature reviewed highlighted that dimensions such as relationships, commitment, communication, funding, and structure are key in the long-term sustainability of the partnership. However, more studies are needed.