The Education Through Work for Health Program (PET-Saúde) aims to qualify the workforce for the Brazilian Unified Health System. This study was carried out to evaluate the contribution made by three PET-Saúde experiments in medical training. Based on historical and dialectical materialism, we sought to understand the integration of PET-Saúde in medical education as a social phenomenon subordinate to the historical conditions of economic production. Data were collected from reports made by students, tutors, mentors and coordinators of three groups of PET-Saúde at two universities in Curitiba, southern Brazil, through interviews and focus groups. It was concluded that, in two groups, the experiences contributed to training flexible workers, effective in the application of technology to solve issues within the limits imposed by the current order. In the third group, the experience contributed to training critical subjects, able to question the limits imposed by the State and society to the full realization of life.
medical training; PET-Saúde; education for work