The Brazilian public healthcare system and its participation in medical training

Abstract

Introduction: In Brazil, in a joint initiative of the Ministries of Health and of Education and Culture, the Program for the Promotion of Changes in Medical School Curricula (PROMED) was created, in order to give financial support to medical schools for the development and implementation of curricular changes to the medicine courses. Objective: To ascertain the influence of PROMED on the interaction between the Brazilian public healthcare system (SUS) and the universities. Method: Using the qualitative method by way of content analysis of the Bardin, interviews with 19 coordinators of the medicine courses which received financial support from PROMED were carried out and analyzed. Results: Subcategories which express the current relation between SUS and the universities were found: the need to train SUS professionals and the teaching staff involved, the lines of research directed toward SUS and partnership relations as part of the student learning process, the strengthening of SUS and the internal problems. Conclusions: Observing the needs of the relationship between SUS and the curricular changes it was noted that the public health services are of extreme importance as part of the training process of the medical student. Besides favoring practice, it establishes student activities within the health services, the evaluation of the policies, planning and management of the health services in activities of training and social communication in healthcare, linked to community organizations or diverse social entities. Thus, problems associated with the healthcare service can be identified, as well as the health conditions and life style of the population

The Role of Professors in Changing Medicine Programs

“…The reciprocal interaction among managers of Education Systems and SUS will enable the creation of real conditions for the use of both systems with better technical quality care and teaching-learning process (Souza et al, 2012).…”

“…The education of health care professionals should be understood as an ongoing process that begins during undergraduate studies and continues in the professional life, through the establishment of partnership relations among institutions of higher education, health care services, the community, entities and other sectors of civil society (Souza et al, 2012).…”

“…It is in the constitution that SUS is a training field for training professionals in health care, however, there are many difficulties to put this in practice. The obstacles are numerous, among them, the smooth approximation of the health care service to the university, insufficient funding, the concentration of most professors in hospital and specialized education, lack of monitoring and continued implementation of an assessment program on the curriculum reform (Souza, 2012).…”

Experience Report: The Challenges of Teaching beyond the University

“…This fact does not fail to pass on to academics a negative and ephemeral notion of primary health care; this ends up not arousing their interest in working in primary care in the future. It is constitutional that the SUS is an internship field for the training of health professionals; however, there are difficulties of all kinds for this to happen, among them the harmonious approximation of the service network with the university, the insufficient funding, the emphasis of most teachers in hospital and specialized education, the non-monitoring and the permanent application of a evaluation program on curriculum reform (Souza et al, 2012).…”

“…In Brazil, the National Curricular Guidelines (NCGs) for medical courses recommend the insertion of students in health service networks, considered as a learning space, since the initial grades; students learn health care, management and education, with an emphasis on primary care (Brazil, 2014). The importance of tertiary care, at the hospital level, in medical training is not overlooked; however, this requires more complex structures for installation and maintenance, as well as more specialized professionals (Souza, Zeferino, & Ros, 2012).…”