PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION IN COMPLEMENTARY AND ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE: CHALLENGES FOR THE PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES

Abstract Legitimated by the World Health Organization, Complementary and Alternative Medicine have shown an increasing demand in the Western world. Professional training is considered one of it’s biggest challenges to its advance in the Brazilian National Health System. The descriptive quantitative study presents the availability of modules of Complementary and Alternative Medicine in six public institutions of higher education at the state of Rio de Janeiro, 2014, identified on these respective websites and secretariat, and classified according to the variables: institutions of higher education, health subarea, level of education (undergraduate and graduate), subtopics of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (Homeopathy, Acupuncture, Meditation etc.); Format (mandatory, elective or optional) and content (informative or formative). The results shows an offer of 56 modules distributed in almost all sub-areas of health care, mainly in Medicine, Pharmacy and Nursing, with a predominantly optional and informative approach. The main themes are Homeopathy, Meditation and Body Practices. The analysis of this offer, based on the perspective of integral care and referenced in national and international literature, points out challenges for the expansion and qualification of the teaching of Integrative and Complementary Practices, among them the integrated insertion in health courses aiming at the interaction and complementarity between knowledge.