ABSTRACT
Attracting medical professionals to work in Primary Health Care (PHC) has been an ongoing challenge for Brazil’s Unified Health System (SUS). The impossibility of a continuous and ongoing education is one of the main factors hindering the provision and retention of doctors in PHC. One of the basic premises of the Program to Value Primary Healthcare Professionals (PROVAB) was to encourage Continuous Education in Health (EPS), emphasizing the interactions between teaching, service and the local community (IESC), with the presence of pedagogical supervision by doctors trained for this purpose. The goal of this study was to analyze, based on the perceptions of their supervisors, the factors that led a group of doctors from Natal, in the State of Rio Grande do Norte, participants in the PROVAB, to stay in Primary Health care (PHC), giving it precedence over the More Doctors Program (PMM). A qualitative study was carried out, using the focal group technique with seven medical supervisors of the PROVAB and PMM. The content analysis identified five thematic categories: The political context at the start of the programs; the profile of the pedagogical supervisors; the profile of the doctors who prioritized PROVAB over the More Doctors Program (PMM); the reasons that led to the retention of PROVAB doctors in the PHC; and why not choose PHC for life? It was demonstrated that the PROVAB worked as an initial strategy to face the challenges of retraining doctors in PHC, in line with the reforms in Medical Education. Despite the difficult political environment in the years that followed the implementation of the PROVAB, there was a synergy between supervision and doctors, who were empowered to carry out their activities, providing conditions to combat unfavorable situations. Strengthening ties with the territorial context, and the skills acquired during the program, related to Primary Health Care (PHC), through the development of links with the local community, acted as factors of stimulus for the retention of doctors in PHC. This led to a change in doctors’ profiles, as they assimilated and acquired the social aspect to work of working in vulnerable areas. This movement should favor the changes predicted in Medical Schools, preventing a regression when it comes to gaps in the health care system. It also encourages the fight for a better country, in which universal access to health and to a medical professional may be not only a privilege of a few, but a guaranteed right for all.
Primary Health Care; Family Health Strategy; Medical Education