Adherence of the Medical Course PPCs to the parameters of the Brazilian medical education policy

Abstract

Introduction: Recent studies have been dedicated to analyzing the PPCs of the medical course and their degree of alignment with what is determined by the Brazilian legislation for the opening and operation of the course in the country. However, there are no nationwide studies that have investigated whether the pedagogical projects for the medical courses are in compliance with current Brazilian legislation. Objective: In this study, we analyzed the adherence of the Pedagogical Course Projects (PPCs) of medical schools in Brazil based on the National Curriculum Guidelines (DCNs, Diretrizes Curriculares Nacionais) of medical education and the “Mais Médicos” Program (PMM, Programa Mais Médicos) for Brazil. Method: To achieve this objective, we collected 157 PPCs from medical courses in Brazil and categorized them in a Likert Scale of adherence, ranging from non-adherent (1) to strongly adherent (5), based on three dimensions of analysis: guiding aspects of training, curricular aspects, teaching-service aspects. Subsequently, using the Principal Component Analysis, we created the PPC Adherence Synthetic Index. After the database was created, descriptive statistics and relational graphs were applied to describe the situation in Brazil. Results: The results show that: I) the Midwest region is the one with the best performance in the three analyzed dimensions; II) public institutions (39% of the total) have greater adherence of PPCs to the analyzed normative parameters; and III) the teaching-service dimension shows greater variation between the types of institution administration, with less adherence by private institutions. Conclusions: Therefore, ultimately, this study raises an alert regarding the adequacy of medical courses in private institutions to the normative and legal parameters required for medical training in Brazil. In addition, it contributes to the literature by presenting an evaluation model for pedagogical course projects through the Synthetic Index of Adherence of PPCs as a suggestion for future studies.