ABSTRACT:
Brazil, along with the world is dealing with the phenomenon of population aging, which, in turn, requires adequate training of professionals to care for the health of older adults in their specific aspects. This article is the result of qualitative research investigating the curriculum of the subject ‘Comprehensive Care for the Health of the Elderly’, in the Medicine undergraduate degree at a Federal University in the countryside of Minas Gerais. This course was especially organized based on the National Curricular Guidelines for Medicine Degrees, published in 2014. This document guides the use of active teaching methodologies, curricular integration, and early student participation in health network services. Based on the observation of theoretical and practical classes, field notes, and interviews with students and teachers of the subject, we approach the discourses and educational practices to identify the relationships between the regulations of medical education, curricular integration, and use of the curriculum by competences and of the active methodologies in teaching health focused on seniors. We concluded that there is an effort to follow normative documents and adopt curricular integration as well as active methodologies. However, there is no radical break from traditional teaching as the institutional stance allows traditional classes and assessments to coexist with active methodologies and formative assessment. The adoption of the guidelines is questioned as methods are expanding, without a change in the concept of education that would support such methods.
Keywords:
medical education; aging; educational gerontology; elderly health; active methodologies