Undergraduate medical education has been undergoing transformations in recent decades. The adoption of active teaching methodologies has grown significantly, in an attempt to meet new social demands. Accordingly, this study aims to describe the experience of the of Service-Learning-Community Integration Practices (PIESC), as one of the supporting axes of the new methodology adopted in medical education by the State University of Southwest Bahia (UESB). The PIESCs are performed in the setting of a Family Health Unit where the students develop activities from the first to the fourth year, following Charles Maguerez's Arc Method, which has five main steps: Reality Observation; Key Points; Theorization, Solution Hypotheses and Application to Reality. These integrated practices provide the students with an early chance to experience the Unified Health System (SUS) through weekly theorizing and multi-professional teamwork, stimulating the development of a critical look at the local health situation while enabling the establishment of links both with the team and the community. Thus, the PIESC are revealed as a fundamental supporting axis in the reorientation of medical education.
Medical Education; Education; Community Medicine; Methods