Health Promotion on Internship Fields for Medical Training

ABSTRACT The present study investigated the concepts and practices related to health promotion among professionals from nine Basic Health Units - BHU, that constitute the internship field of the Medical course of Rio Grande do Norte State University - UERN, in the town of Mossoró/RN. The findings are discussed from the perspective of new trends in Medical Education, Health and Care. This is an exploratory study with a qualitative approach, applying the thematic analysis technique for data analysis. The research subjects were twenty-five professionals who work in the Family Health Strategy - FHS. The results revealed three conceptual tendencies: Health Promotion assimilated as a form of disease prevention, a diffused concept of Health Promotion and, finally, an appropriate characterization. The practices included lectures with groups of patients, in the context of actions and programs, such as Hiperdia (addressing hypertension), health of the elderly and pregnant, and individual guidelines, provided both at the BHU and during home visits. The main challenges identified for health promotion included: the persistence of the biomedical model, the human resources deficit, the excess demand and absence of qualification mechanisms, which contribute toward team fragility and fragmentation. In conclusion, it is necessary to intensify efforts toward achieving a dialogical construction between Teaching, Services, Health Management and the Society, highlighting in the field of Medical Education the availability of instruments that support coordination between training institutions and the Health Services and offer mechanisms for integrated training and permanent education. The role of medical schools is reasserted: committed to consolidating the purposes of Health Promotion, aligned to the dialogical model of education for training medical professionals with a profile that society needs, and in favor of a healthier life and a better society.