Abstract
Quality and universal health care is a right that should be guaranteed through public policies, proper funding, and through the adequate training of the health professionals. One of the strategies identified to overcome this challenge is the Education for the Work in Health Program (Programa de Educação para o Trabalho em Saúde, PET-Saúde, in the Portuguese acronym; PET-Health henceforth), which has the goal of promoting the interaction of students and professors with the health services. The goal of the present study was to compare, using the results of the 2013 National Nursing Student Performance Exam (Exame Nacional de Desempenho dos Estudantes dos cursos de Enfermagem, in Portuguese), the performance of the individuals who took part in the mentioned program with that of those who did not. It is an observational study, with a cross-sectional and analytical perspective, which was conducted between February and June 2017. The research analyzed the performance through the weighted arithmetic means regarding general training, professional training and Collective Health. The sample was composed of 30,289 students, 876 of which took part in the PET-Health. The students involved with the program performed better in every segment, with a statistically significant difference (p < 0.001) in comparison to those who did not take part in the program. The results indicate that the program in question has the power to understand the need for training within the Unified Health System (Sistema Único de Saúde, SUS, in the Portuguese acronym) regarding the knowledge on Collective Health and the professional area, which should be a guiding element in the development of the syllabuses of Nursing Courses.
Unified Health System; educational evaluation; nursing