This paper is a set of reflections for a Project on Continued Education aimed at professionals in collective health. From reflections on the subject that are being promoted by the National School of Public Health at the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation in Rio de Janeiro, the authors suggest a theoretical reference in the fields of collective health and education, pointing to the formulation of objectives based on data from the national context, socioeconomic factors, determinants of health conditions, health and labor policies, as well as structures and objectives of the home institutions of health professionals for whom the Program is designed. This strategy points to five major aspects and recommends the creation of a data bank on graduates, articulation between universities and agencies devoted to training human resources in health, development of workshops and seminars, and analysis of local conjunctures, with the definition of likely scenarios and choices at the local level. The issue of work is the integrating thrust of the Program's actions, going beyond the academic way of teaching and learning, and from data on reality providing an educational process organized between teachers of academic institutions and agents of health practices, favouring the confrontation and solution of problems in health services as the basis for the application of knowledge that has been generated and for the reflection towards the "re-creation" of current health practices.
Continuing Education; Human Resources; Education and Health Services