The Family Health Program, which was adopted by the Municipal Health Secretariat of the city of Vitória, in the Brazilian state of Espírito Santo, as a strategy for structuring municipal primary health care, has been requiring its professionals to have knowledge and skills that are generally not stressed in their academic education. Moreover, the constant input of new concepts and technologies and the demand of the population for health services that are appropriate for their specific needs require health professionals to constantly improve. The municipal health secretariat, responding to these needs, has implemented in 2001 (and institutionalized in 2003) the Permanent Education program for graduate professionals of the Family Health Program staff. This program's actions have been guided by a new notion of continued education, which involves evidence-based contextualized learning that uses innovative methodologies such as peer reviewing and problem-based learning.
permanent education; institutionalization; quality of care
