Professional insertion and sanitary identity: experience of graduates of the graduation in collective health/UFMT, Brazil

Abstract

The objective of this article was to understand professional insertion and identity as sanitarian based on the experience of graduates in Collective Health/UFMT-Brazil. We used the Sociology of Professions based on Claude Dubar, identifying the meanings of professionalization through the nuances of training and practices in the construction of “being a sanitarian”. Through qualitative research, 12 graduates working in Collective Health were interviewed, treated by thematic analysis. One topic focused on the profile, the forms/strategies of professional insertion such as invitations, indications, progression/relocation in the institutions where they already worked, approvals in postgraduate notices and selections with contract. The bonds varied in commissioned positions, temporary contracts, statutory and as scholarship holders. Another topic addressed the identity perceptions built in the world of work in the public health network, highlighting the political-social component with a critical role, expressing the commitment of Collective Health to social transformation, improvement of the population’s life and health as a citizenship right and duty of State. The professional identity is built procedurally and the insertion in the work occurs through the mobilization of agents, leaving the engagement in the struggle for recognition guided by the Brazilian Sanitary Reform values and a solidary, fair and democratic society.