Health Surveillance for 4 ^th Year Medical Students - Department of Pediatrics, Medical School, University of Campinas

Abstract:

Social Pediatrics is concerned with children's health and illness at the individual and collective level. The individual and health surveillance approaches to children's health care should be transcended, to attain an overall view of the individual through an understanding of the colletivity. This article reports on a teaching experiment for fourth­year medical students at Campinas State University Medical School (FCM-Unicamp), where theoretical and practical activities in health surveillance were conducted with a view to understanding the relationship between standard of living and health, and the importance of environment and family for children's growth and development, and of health surveillance as a working tool. It describes the activities pursued and the results obtained by evaluations of students, supervisors and health workers. It concludes that the proposed aims were achieved, and that this can be a way to build human resource to meet the public's real health needs.

Keywords:
Health surveillance; Medical education