The teaching-research-extension process carried out with immersion of subjects in real scenarios enables university-community integration, thereby increasing social insertion. The aim of this study was to present the experience from a project conducted in five Brazilian municipalities, with participation of teachers and postgraduate and undergraduate students, in partnership with municipal authorities and healthcare workers as a scenario for teaching-research within the Brazilian health system. Workshops and training courses were conducted among healthcare teams, managers and health counselors, and technical visits were made to the municipalities for situational assessments, activity supervision, user satisfaction evaluations and formation of popular leaderships. Improvements in service organization and stimulation of strengthened links between users and service providers were observed. This experience served as a learning and research laboratory: science was conducted from in situ experience of health system realities, thereby contributing towards better humanitarian professional training based on real scenarios.
National Health System; Teaching; Academies and institutes; Health manpower; Health service research
