Atenção primária em saúde na graduação em medicina: percepção dos discentes da Universidade Estadual de Montes Claros - UNIMONTES - MG

Abstract

In tune with the transformation the educational process of health professionals has gone through, the UNIMONTES’ Medical School has been implementing, since 2000, strategies to make sure there is a diverse learning/training scenario, including the amplification of curricular activities in primary care services. The goal of this work is to understand the students’ perception regarding the primary care and its importance in the medical school. The methodology used so far was a qualitative research accomplished through semi-structured interviews with twenty eight students from different semesters of medical school. The answers were analyzed and separated into four empirical categories related to the primary care attributes referenced by Starfield (2002): First Contact, Longitudinality, Coordination and Comprehensiveness of care, and a category referring the primary care importance in medical education. The perceptions evidenced here showed the importance of the use of the primary care scenario in the medical educational process as a tool for adapting it to the current curricular programs and for assimilating the attributes of the primary level in the health system.