[The process of continuing education in health]

Educational measures are closely linked to learning, and like learning, must proceed in a coherent manner and be implemented as ongoing team efforts. The education process is governed by strategies based on the specific circumstances and problems of work in the health field. Meanwhile, health services and programs must meet the social and health needs of a country, which in turn are intimately bound up with the particular characteristics of that country and of the society and its constituent elements. Personnel training is a basic component of any health plan. Continuing education in the health field, as an ongoing educational process, must take place in the work environment, draw on actual employment conditions, and become a dynamic process that guarantees not only the acquisition of scientific knowledge and habits but also the fresh elaboration of concepts to give another dimension to health problems in terms of cause and effect, the universal and the particular, and possibility and reality. The following elements should be noted in the type of educational process proposed: the context, which is the frame of reference for the objectives of the process in question; the identification of learning needs, which require educational measures for all or part of the personnel; the educational profile, which identifies the knowledge, skills and attitudes that the worker must acquire to find the best way to do his job, and be a productive member of society. Finally, the training process brings all those elements together and takes place as part of occupational practice; in other words, an educational component is inherent in any action performed in the health field. An ongoing training process must include monitoring, which requires the identification in advance of indicators; follow-up, which requires the feasibility of correcting deficiencies, deviations and discrepancies observed in the process and, finally, education management, which involves taking the measures needed to ensure attainment of the educational objectives.