Between training and conformation: professional health education in the 21st century

The study addresses Professional Health Education (PHE) in higher education and uses as an object of analysis a proposal for health training for the 21st century, published in The Lancet, in December 2010, through the report entitled “Health professionals for a new century: transforming education to strengthen health systems in an interdependent world”. The report proposes an educational reform for Medicine, Nursing and Public Health courses. This dissertation critically problematizes this proposal for health education for the 21st century, proposes an analysis of the possible relationship between its formulation and the changes operated in capitalist social relations and the discussion of the main concepts contained in the proposal: competence, global health and evidence-based medicine. The conclusion of the study indicates that the proposal reflects, through its central concepts, the transformations that occurred in social and work relations, between the State and the so-called "civil society", which have influenced in recent decades and still influence the planning and implementation of social policies. EPS, based on the precepts of Evidence-Based Medicine and the notion of competencies, points to the continuity of a pragmatic-based educational model in the 21st century.