Article Text
Abstract
Introduction General and specifics professional competencies aim to guide the professional profile expected and must to address health services needs and demands. Professional competences to worker health surveillance in a perspective of comprehensive health care in the health network (and not as a medicine specialty) are not well known in the literature, what compromise education process and health care assistance. Thus, this study aimed to identify professional competences to worker health surveillance.
Methods Qualitative research with triangulation of data, performed in three steps:
documental analysis of Brazilian National Curriculum Standards for the healthcare field and pedagogical projects of seven courses from Federal University of Sao Carlos: nursing, medicine, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, psychology, gerontology and physical education.
Systematic review was conducted in databases: Latin American and Caribbean Health Sciences Literature, MEDLINE/PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus and Education Resources Information Centre. Gathering strategies includes MESH terms: occupational health, curriculum, competency-based education and undergraduate medical education.
Interview with professors from seven courses of university and professionals of healthcare system, guided by criteria of saturation data and thematic analysis of data.
Results Preliminary results show general competencies from undergraduate courses of health area that are related to worker health surveillance, as communication, team work, leadership, health management skills and health education. Documental analysis demonstrated several specific competences from each profession, but none related to worker health surveillance – what should include health promotion, risks, diseases and harm prevention, professional rehabilitation and return to work. Some pedagogical projects presented content that exploit different perspectives of workers health and safety, but not in an integrated way or represented by competences.
Discussion Preliminary results show that education standards, pedagogical projects and literature review still consider worker health as occupational health, i.e., as a specialty, not exploring this theme as whole in undergraduate education.