[Planning the teaching of pediatrics in the community]

Medical education today includes planning as a useful tool for guiding, and thereby improving, the teaching-learning process. Community work has become increasingly important in medical education programs, and planning is essential to it. One excellent field for these activities is pediatrics. This article analyzes the concepts of medical, health, and health care instruction in the community, and traces the emergence of this approach as a response to sociopolitical phenomena. The pediatric field is defined in terms of growth and development, disease hazards and the prevalent pathology, and the cultural and socioeconomic factors involved. Also considered are objectives, planning areas, and operational decentralization, and the methodology of community instruction on the level of the individual, the family, and the educational institutions, with varying degrees of community participation.