Incorporating public health into the curricula of medical programs in Bahia, Brazil

The present study aims to analyze the inclusion of Collective Health knowledge and practices in the pedagogical projects of medical courses, taking as a reference the 2014 National Curricular Guidelines (Diretrizes Curriculares Nacionais - DCNs) for Undergraduate Medical Courses. The methodology included selecting six courses from among the 30 offered in the state of Bahia and analyzed the curricular matrix and the syllabuses of the curricular components that present content from the sub-areas of Collective Health-Epidemiology, Policy, Planning and Management, and Social and Human Sciences in Health. The results show a diversity of designations and workloads, highlighting the coexistence of concepts and practices stemming from various reform movements, such as Preventive Medicine, Community Medicine, Social Medicine, Family Health, Primary Health Care, as well as topics related to the field of Collective Health, offered in the pre-internship and internship periods. The conclusion is that the courses analyzed are not fully complying with the provisions of the 2014 DCN, with varying degrees of approximation to these recommendations, which requires a comprehensive evaluation process of these courses, especially given the enormous expansion and privatization of medical education in the country over the last decade.