Teaching public health in Brazil: an integrative review

Abstract

The teaching of public health in Brazil contributes to the technical-scientific development of the field,  transcending the mere approach of health programs  in a fragmented way. Thus, the objective of this study  was to understand the operationalization of teaching  in public health, in the stricto sensu undergraduate  and graduate programs, in Brazil. This is an integrative literature review based on a search in PubMed, SCOPUS, PsycINFO, Latin American and Caribbean  Health Sciences (LILACS), Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO) databases, and the Latin American  and Caribbean Center on Health Sciences Information (BIREME). Twenty-one articles were analyzed by title,  author, year, characterization and/or objective, methodology, and main results. It is concluded that  the institutionalization of graduate courses in the field of public health followed the educational movement  of the university and the Brazilian Health Reform,  while undergraduate courses only took place in the  last decade. The 1988 constitutional framework  defines the ordering of human resources for  professional training in and for the country’s health  system.