The scope of this study is to provide a better understanding how nursing, medicine and dental students from a state university view the process of falling ill. The study is based on a qualitative approach. Students were interviewed according to a semi-structured script focused on their understanding of the health-illness process. The transcripts of the interviews were organized and systematized using the computer software Atlas.ti 6 and subjected to discourse analysis. Of particular note were the answers about the concept of falling sick expressed by the students prior to the course and how that concept had changed after entering university. Furthermore, a comparative analysis was performed between the concepts expressed by the interviewees from the three courses. It was found that the students had broadened their perceptions of this process, adding socioeconomic and psychological factors to their previously held biomedical understanding.
Medical Education; Health-Disease Process; Qualitative Research; Students
