ABSTRACT
The Medicine course of the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar) presents an innovative curriculum, with pioneering methodological and pedagogical processes, adapted to the new National Curricular Guidelines. Of the educational modules that compose the syllabus, the Educational Professional Practice Unit (UEPP) can be highlighted. This unit symbolizes the ideals of an undergraduate training that transposes the University walls, providing apprenticeship to students in real practical settings, with teacher and student participation in public healthcare actions. The objective of the study was to analyze the care provided by the students at Family Health Centers (USF) in the context of the UEPP. The research subjects were the patients attended to by UFSCar student medics in 2014. The data was collected through individual interviews and analyzed using thematic content analysis. The analysis involved the formation of two major thematic categories: “a caring student-patient relationship” and “dialogical approach to preparing the patient’s medical history”. In the first category, patients highlighted the following topics: the attention and dedication afforded them as important aspects of the longitudinal care process, with a significant difference in how they perceived the service offered by the center when the students were not present; the students’ accessibility and their actions in relation to the patients under their care, which resulted in the user feeling closer to the health system, as well as in an improved individual perception of self-care. One way in which the users’ approval is demonstrated is in the suggestion that the academics’ visiting model be adopted in other centers. In the second category, the establishment of a dialogical relationship between the student and the patients allowed for an expanded construction of the patients’ medical histories, reflected in regular and accessible follow-ups. In their approach, the students carried out health promotion and prevention actions directed at each stage of the life cycle; in exchange, they were able to make use of a rich and fulfilling practical setting in order to acquire skills foreseen as part of the skillset to be taught in the first two years of undergraduate medical training. Having checked and discussed the results, the researchers ascertained that this Educational Unit provided a learning opportunity in relation to clinical care from the first years of undergraduate training onwards. Multiple possibilities for the provision of professional medical training through basic care are inferred, in addition to the positive values highlighted and derived from an ongoing care relationship between student and patient. It should also be noted that this experience allows the student medics to build interpersonal relationships within the healthcare process, serving as a foundation for their entire undergraduate and professional life, as well as a model for other institutions.
Empathy; Medical Care; Patient-Centered Care; Primary Health Care; Medical Education; Professional Practice