The professional master's degree as a preferable model for training in family health

This article presents the legal background relating to professional master's degrees proposals; it describes the followed paths after proposing and introducing a professional master's degree program in health, with specialization in family health; it argues for the correctness and suitability of this model for developing interdisciplinary skills in health professionals, within a perspective of consolidating health reforms and the Brazilian national health care system, through Family Health Program, its most innovative strategy. The proposal, which has been running since 2003, is based on the multi-dimensionality of the health-sickness process and on the model of Health Surveillance which includes three levels of integrated care. The interdisciplinary nature is the pedagogical principle of the course, in an attempt to find solidarity spaces through teaching and investigative activities or social intervention among the subjects of the process. Although we do not have an evaluation of the impact of the Course on the Care Model, there are some indicators of its acceptance, such as: an increasing number of candidates in the selection process; satisfaction among students and teachers; adherence to the practices required for the consolidation of the Brazilian National Healthcare System (SUS) in the students' works for course conclusion, and the recent recommendation by CAPES.

education; human resources; family health; specialization; professional master's degree