Preceptorship in Family and Community Medicine: challenges and achievements in a Primary Health Care in progress

DOI: 10.1590/1413-81232017223.332372016 737 Preceptorship in Family and Community Medicine: challenges and achievements in a Primary Health Care in progress ARTICLE Mellina Marques Vieira Izecksohn 1 Jorge Esteves Teixeira Junior 2 Bruno Pereira Stelet 2 Adelson Guaraci Jantsch 3 Centro de Saúde Escola Germano Sinval Faria, Escola Nacional de Saúde Pública, Fiocruz. R. Leopoldo Bulhões 1480, Manguinhos. 21041-210 Rio de Janeiro RJ Brasil. 2 Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro. Rio de Janeiro RJ Brasil. 3 Programa de Residência Médica, Secretaria Municipal de Saúde do Rio de Janeiro. Rio de Janeiro RJ Brasil. 1 Abstract Strengthening Primary Health Care (PHC) relies directly on training medical specialists in primary care. This text aims to report the Family Medicine training experiences in Rio de Janeiro between 2008 and 2016. It brings to reflection the development of preceptors in medical specialization through an experience report on three Family Medicine medical residency programs, namely, the Municipal Health Secretariat program, the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro program and the National School of Public Health program. The PHC reform in Rio de Janeiro created a demand for medical specialists working in networks, leading to the expansion of already established medical residency programs and the establishment of a new program sponsored by the Municipal Health Secretariat, providing new teaching positions in several health facilities within the municipal network. These three residency programs progressed through different paths to provide training to their preceptors, offering permanent courses and local actions seeking higher professional qualification and better balance between care and education responsibilities. Permanent investments to strengthen medical residency programs and preceptors training are essential to consolidate the PHC reform nationwide. Key words Family and community medicine, Primary Health Care, Medical internship and residency, Preceptorship Izecksohn MMVet al. 738 Introduction The recognition that Primary Health Care (PHC) is an effective organizing element of health systems is evident and abundant in the scientific literature1,2. When health care’s gateway consists of a robust and structured PHC ensuring access, comprehensive and longitudinal care and coordinating care to patients within the system, patients feel more satisfied and there are a number of favorable impacts on the health of the population1. Its impacts at the community level can be observed in greater adherence to preventive measures, lower maternal and infant mortality, lower low birth weight3, greater life expectancy and lower overall mortality in the adult population4. At the hospital level, structured PHC may contribute to fewer PHC-sensitive hospitalizations and reduced use of emergency services5,6. Locations with PHC based on general practitioners have better health outcomes compared to other that rely primarily on non-general practitioners in their organization7. However, one of the major challenges to the qualification and consolidation of PHC worldwide is related to the training of specialized professionals for this level of health care8. Despite the relevance of scientific production and the recognition of its importance and competence in developed countries, the medical specialty aimed at primary health care in Brazil – Family and Community Medicine (FCM) – still does not have the same importance in the health system. This hardship is not unique to Brazil and is linked to incipient health systems common to developing countries, where most health care is performed in a hospital setting, with PHC playing a minor and selective role, where oral rehydration therapy, contraception and vaccination are the core services offered9. The obstacles preventing the Family and Community Doctor (FCD) from playing a key role in PHC in these countries were analyzed by the Besrour Foundation in 2015, and the three main ones were: 1. FCDs in different countries play several roles in their practice settings, mostly solving problems that could be solved by a multidisciplinary organization of the work process; 2. Due to the lack of systems’ organization, there is no regulation determining which medical specialty is responsible for the first contact with patients. Thus, several medical specialties end up competing within the medical corporation itself, making it difficult to coordinate care and making the choice of professionals for a specialty be more market logic-oriented rather than population needs-oriented; 3. In an environment with high workloads and poorly organized service flows, longitudinality and its benefits do not seem to be easy to achieve10. PHC strengthening relies directly on the training of primary care physicians to meet the health needs of the population. This reinforces the idea that, in order to be effective in PHC, the professional must be educated and trained to do so. Health students need to have experience in PHC during training as a way of understanding that health care is the result of a structured system and depends much more on the coordination of the different levels of care than on isolated clinical behaviors11. The training of medical specialists is usually carried out by immersion in the daily life of specific services, whose teaching methodology is centered on the coexistence and observation of the practice of a more experienced and specialized supervising physician12. While practical activities structure the learning process, it is expected that an intrinsic relation between practice and theory will occur13. The complexity of training in PHC settings requires the specific skills of professionals who guide these students in practice, called preceptors. In addition to the clinical skills to diagnose and treat the most common conditions of the health-disease process affecting the population, the FCD needs to act strategically in disease prevention and health promotion actions, always taking into account the sociocultural complexity that permeates the lives of individuals, families and communities. If there is already a challenge to train specialist medical professionals with this view, more complicated is the training of preceptors in this setting. Within a context of PHC under construction, it becomes much more difficult to train specialist physicians imbued with teaching responsibilities and building bridges between theory and practice. This article aims to report the experiences of FCM training in the city of Rio de Janeiro from 2008 to 2016, with the purpose of reflecting on the development of preceptorship in the scope of medical specialization. The PHC Reform in Rio de Janeiro and the expansion of Family and Community Medicine Medical Residency Programs PHC expansion in Rio de Janeiro resulted in an accelerated increase of Family Health Teams 739 In this setting of expanding PHC, it was not possible to co (...truncated)