6th CONEM discussed new national curriculum guidelines for medical courses

Discussing medical education in Brazil, within the perspective of the new national curricular guidelines for medicine courses, was the focus of the 6th Northeastern Congress of Medical Education (CONEM) which took place from 3 to 5 April, at the Convention Center of Escola Bahiana de Medicina e Saúde Pública. With the participation of health professionals, teachers and students, the event was fueled by the news of the official approval of the new guidelines by the Higher Education Chamber of the National Education Council (CNE), last April 3rd.

Among other points, the document stipulates the obligation that at least 30% of the workload of the mandatory internship, in an internship regime, takes place in the Unified Health System (SUS), in primary care and in urgent and emergency services. The document now goes to the Minister of Education, Henrique Paim, who will be responsible for analyzing and ratifying the guidelines.

CONEM had the participation of important names in medical education in Brazil, such as the president of the Brazilian Association of Medical Education, Prof. Dr. Jadete Lampert. “We agreed that the 2001 guidelines could be being adjusted. The new guidelines bring evaluation every two years to the schools' agenda, which is good because our evaluation culture is still very fragile. Another thing that is strong is the practice of the student within the Unified Health Service – whose network must be improved to meet this demand”.

Regarding CONEM, Dr. Jadete Lampert recognizes the moment as very opportune, in the current political context in Brazil. “I think the Northeastern Congress of Medical Education is an important milestone in this national discussion. It took place at a very relevant political moment for critical analysis and we have seen here many outstanding works that encourage us as the Brazilian Association of Medical Education, in this journey towards collective construction, through the exchange of experiences. It is also a time to empower movements, because the challenges are very great”.

Another point valued by the new guidelines is the focus on developing communication skills. During CONEM, this was the theme worked by the coordinator of the Communication subproject at ABEM, Dr. Suely Grosseman. “In the old guidelines, one of the areas to be implemented was communication, but 'what would be communication' was not specified. With the new guidelines, although this answer is not yet clear, there are some tasks, and ABEM is giving full support to the schools, because it understands that one of the skills that every health professional should master, is communication ”. She explains that this communication will work both under the scope of the doctor and patient relationship, as doctor and family, and community, and work team, etc.

Urgency and emergency also gain an appreciation from now on. According to the coordinator of the urgency and emergency subproject at ABEM, Dr. Gustavo Fraga, “urgency and emergency are areas that we are giving a lot of attention to because most professionals who graduate have as their first job opportunity a vacancy in urgency and emergency. and we know that many of them do not have adequate content during graduation. In this ABEM project, we are doing an analysis of how urgent and emergency teaching is being in these different courses”.

According to the director of Escola Bahiana de Medicina e Saúde Pública, Dr. Maria Luisa Carvalho Soliani, the institution's Medicine course was already adjusted to the 2001 guidelines, including the teaching of urgency and emergency implemented since the first year, as well as communication disciplines. Regarding the assessment, the school already applies the Progress Test. Another point already taken care of is the performance of practice in the Unified Health System, reaching a mark of 24% of the workload (with the new guidelines, this number should increase to 30%).

“One of the adjustments that we were already planning, regardless of the new guidelines, was to expand the internship in urgency and emergency in mental health. This is a point where we are going to invest a lot now. But generally speaking, we've already fully complied with the previous guidelines. We hope that the new guidelines, which should become mandatory, are implemented so that medical education really improves in Brazil”, comments Dr. Maria Luisa.

The participation of students and professionals in the congress was also effective. To Rogério Anton, medical student at Bahiana, the student's participation in this context of discussions is due to the fact that “he needs to be aware of what the education being given is based on. It is necessary to know more about the context of medical education: the process of humanization of the medical professional; the new guidelines, for example, we must know them well because it is our responsibility to charge the institution, in case there is a point missing in the curriculum”.

The 6th CONEM was an achievement of ABEM, with the support of Escola Bahiana de Medicina e Saúde Pública, Federal University of Bahia, State University of Bahia, UNIFACS, FTC, CREMEB and Association Bahiana of Medicine.

According to the member of the organizing committee, as a professor, Prof. Dr. Marta Menezes, “improving the population's health conditions must necessarily involve adequate training of health professionals. It is up to educational institutions the mission of training professionals with a generalist profile, technically competent, humanist, with a critical and reflective attitude, ethical, responsible and citizens”. She highlights as a catalyst, the current context of launching new guidelines that also bring the issue of Mais Médicos, the role of boarding schools in primary care, via SUS, among other points.

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