Primary health care professional masters programme in Brazil: Investing in human resources to strengthen the national health system

Brazil is currently undergoing a massive expansion of its Primary Health Care (PHC) policy – the Family Health Strategy (FHS) – with more than 28 thousand teams covering more than 50% of Brazilians. In this context, training of human resources should be expanding in the same direction in order to qualify health workers to deliver effective care within the FHS. In 2007, the Post-Graduate Programme of Epidemiology of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul and the Conceição Hospital Group received funding from the Brazilian Ministry of Healthfor a new training programme, entitled “Professional Masters Programme in Epidemiology: Management of Health Technologies with Emphasis in Primary Health Care”. Its aim is to strengthen PHC research and practice within the continuum of a Masters Programme on Management of Health Technologies that had started that same year. Specifically, the Programme’s objective is to train health workers to act strategically in the National Health System – Sistema Único de Saúde (SUS) -, incorporating critical thinking in their daily practice as health managers, care providers, or teachers in the context of PHC. The basic requirement for the 2-year tuition-free programme was to work with PHC within the SUS, be it at a local, state or national level. Of the 140 candidates applying, 26, from 8 states, were selected: 16 are women, and 24 are physicians, nurses or dentists (occupations included in the FHS), with balance between management, care provision and teaching activities. Training activities began in September, 2008. Monthly training modules (3-day encounters) are scheduled, distance training activities being complementary. Each student is expected to prepare a scientific paper for publication as his final academic product. We believe that this programme will have an important role in stimulating PHC professionals to develop scientific skills and undertake research relevant to the Brazilian PHC system.