Teaching public health in Brazil: an integrative review

ABSTRACT The teaching of public health in Brazil contributes to the technical-scientific development of the field, transcending the mere approach of health programs in a fragmented way. Thus, the objective of this study was to understand the operationalization of teaching in public health, in the stricto sensu undergraduate and graduate programs, in Brazil. This is an integrative literature review based on a search in PubMed, SCOPUS, PsycINFO, Latin American and Caribbean Health Sciences (LILACS), Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO) databases, and the Latin American and Caribbean Center on Health Sciences Information (BIREME). Twenty-one articles were analyzed by title, author, year, characterization and/or objective, methodology, and main results. It is concluded that the institutionalization of graduate courses in the field of public health followed the educational movement of the university and the Brazilian Health Reform, while undergraduate courses only took place in the last decade. The 1988 constitutional framework defines the ordering of human resources for professional training in and for the country’s health system.