Interprofessional education as a strategy to reorient the care and health model in Brazil: contributions from PET-Health

Abstract

In the last 20 years, Brazilian educational institutions have been more intensively invited to participate in
initiatives for changes in the qualification of health professionals, with a view to promoting greater preparation
for work in the Unified Health System (SUS). More recently, in 2018, the Ministry of Health launched the ninth edition of the The Program for Education through Labor for Health (PET-Health) with a focus on
interprofessionality. The PET-Health/Interprofessionality benefited from the influences of the historical
initiatives of changes in the training model in Brazil. The interprofessional approach gained greater strength
within the training institutions and in the health care network from this edition of the program, which
highlighted the need for investments in other areas, such as faculty development, effective communication
between professionals and the greatest stimulus to teaching in a community of practice. This work exposes
important advances in Brazil on the Interprofessional Education (IPE) as a strategy to reorient its model of care
and health. In its turn, it signals that it is necessary to establish profound changes in training and in health care,
in order to ensure that PET-Health achieves its purposes, providing an opportunity to reflect that in order to
think about work, according to real health needs, it is necessary to think in training, which is also so necessary.
PET-Health/Interprofessionality is a possible way to reorient the training and work model in health in Brazil.