ABSTRACT
From the context of the end of the military regime and the consequent democratization of the country, with the accomplishment of the VIII National Conference of Health and the creation of the Unified Health System (SUS), proposals for changes to medical education begin to emerge in order to adapt it to this new system. Within this process, the formation of the National Interinstitutional Commission for the Evaluation of Medical Education (Cinaem) was highlighted in 1991, with the proposal to carry out a self-assessment of medical education at that time in different phases, which culminated in 2001, with the elaboration of the National Curricular Guidelines (DCN) for the medical education. Understanding that the medical education proposed by the DCN aims to train professionals with a generalist, humanist, critical and reflective profile, which contemplate the current health system, and whose formation must take place through the link with the social needs of health, with emphasis on SUS, this work aimed to identify, through a qualitative analysis, the influence exerted by the medical education in a teaching institution on the perceptions of its students and excipients about the Unified Health System. Data were collected from focus groups, carried out with students from the third to the twelfth medical period, following a flexible guiding script. The cross-sectional and horizontal reading of data based on Donabedian’s 24 “Structure, Process and Results” methodology allowed the identification of central themes present in the narratives, on which the discussion was built. Among them, the following themes were highlighted: faculty, theoretical and practical adequacy and public health. Finally, the students’ vision about the SUS system, their intentions of utilization and professional insertion in it, and some evidence of a hidden curriculum were understood. The study brought to the conclusion that medical training has a strong influence on these factors. Most of the students do not have the interest of working in the SUS nor of its use, motivated by practical experiences, by the discourse and example of the teachers.
Medical Education; Public Health; Unified Health System; Curriculum
