Primary Care (PC) centered on family medicine started to be taught at the Faculty of Medicine of Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo University (FMRP-USP), in 1997. The teaching strategy consists in introducing students into Family Health teams, where they are encouraged to participate in the routine Family Practice, taking part in group activities, team meetings, household visits, and discussions of individual and family cases. Disease prevention, health promotion and the relationship with the user of the care delivery system are emphasized in an effort to deliver comprehensive care. The objective of this study was to evaluate to which extent, in the viewpoint of 5th year medical students of FMRP-USP, the Family health experience contributed to their Primary Care training. A structured questionnaire was applied to 103 students before and after the training. The training contributed positively to the education of the students, especially as refers to the aspects integration with the health team, patient-centeredness, and awareness of the main principles of family medicine such as team work, long-term care, accessibility and preventive care. After the training the students passed do give more importance to the social and economic aspects of the individual and to see the patient as bio-psychosocial being.
Family Health; Primary Health Care; Medical Education; Medical Students; Community Health; Public health; Internship and Residency; Inservice Training
