ABSTRACT
The National Curriculum Guidelines for the 2001 medical course highlighted the need for changes in medical education for training professionals. The new 2014 Guidelines strengthened the changes in order to promote greater integration between teaching and service. One change instigated by UNICAMP Faculty of Medical Sciences was to place students in Primary healthcare (PHC) activities from the first year, including the addition of an Integral Healthcare subject in the fourth year, where students experience the reality of primary healthcare in Basic Health Units (UBS) over the course of the academic year.
Objective
To assess student interest in working as doctors in APS.
Method
A structured questionnaire was sent to students in the 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th years of medical school in 2012, before, during, and after the course. The Integral Healthcare subject was created and implemented as part of the curriculum reform with the aim that the students would be immersed in APS, with responsibilities and doctor-patient bonds, meeting the DCNs and training physicians to the population’s needs. The other subjects related to teaching-service integration that were already part of the residency underwent adjustments during the reform but no transformations.
Results
A change in student interest in working in PHC was registered, rising from 20.9% in the 3rd year of medicine, as confirmed by previous studies, to 47% in the 6th year. The group responses were statistically compared and analyzed, and suggested that the earlier inclusion in the public healthcare network with teaching-service integration was effective at shifting the students’ desire to work as medical professionals in PHC. Care with teaching during residencies at UBS with teachers and tutors demonstrating quality and resoluteness in attending the public may have influenced this change in the will to work as professionals in the Municipal Health Network in the future.
Medical Education; Primary Healthcare; Unified Healthcare System; Health Education; Students