MEDICAL PRACTICE IN THE COMMUNITY AS AN ESSENTIAL ACTIVE TEACHING STRATEGY IN MEDICAL EDUCATION IN BRAZIL: EXPERIENCE REPORT

Introduction: As recommended by the 2014’s National Curricular Guidelines for Medical Programs, the undergraduate medical program at UNIFENAS-BH uses Primary Healthcare (PHC) as teaching scenario via a discipline named “Prática Médica na Comunidade (PMC)”. PMC applies active teaching and learning methods and occurs from the first to the fourth term. Objective: To report students’ experience on the impact of ‘PMC‘ in medical training. Method: Students’ report on eight cognitive workshops, seven technical visits to PHC sites, and production of eight e-portfolios in 2015.2 in Belo Horizonte (Brazil). Results: Health interventions were undertaken with selected families on health promotion, self-care and on the influence of family and social determinants on thehealth-disease dyad. Discussion: PMC enabled deep, critical, and reflexive exposure to Brazil‘s Unified Healthcare System (SUS), PHC, and to learn how to learn since medical course on set. The workshops enhanced knowledge and attitude necessary for visit selected PHC units and households, which in turn, enriched reflexive-portfolio report. Such visits improved students’ listening skills, empathy, humanization and capacity to see patients beyond diseases and at the family and community levels. Conclusion: Brazilian society requires more humanistic doctors prepared to respond people‘s healthcare needs. The development of such professional profile is accomplished via PMC, which increases SUS user, medical students and teachers’satisfaction. PMC is essential in the Unifenas-BH medicine course.