The training of family practitioners is essential for meeting the extensive health care demand of the Brazilian population, however there is still no consensus about a Family Medicine Residency Program in this field. With the purpose of delineating a proposal for such a program a theoretical study was conducted taking as a basis a review of the literature, recommendations of the Comissão Nacional de Residência Médica, Sociedade Brasileira de Medicina de Família e Comunidade and the opinion of family medicine residents of the Pontifícia Universidade Católica of Paraná. The data were gathered over five years by the main author of this article and preceptor of the family health residents at the mentioned university. The program includes medical knowledge, practice-based learning, systems-based practice, research and evaluation, to be developed for two years in primary and secondary care facilities. Community assistance is combined with teaching through in-service training and cooperation of the medical school, the local health authorities and the population, building a preventive-curative biopsychosocial paradigm of the health-disease process focused on the individual, the family and the community. We believe that this proposal can contribute to the discussion about this complex and polemic subject and that it will be possible to reach a consensus with regard to the training of the family practitioners needed in Brazil.
Medical Education; Family Medicine Residency; Family Health Program
