This article presents the view health area professionals and students have concerning the interface between health and the environment. It is a qualitative, descriptive study undertaken with different social players that are part of the vocational training process in the health care area in a municipality in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The data were collected through a semistructured interview comprising gui-ding questions on the study subject and carried out among hospital workers, nurses, health care professors and students, and community health agents. Each subproject was analyzed individually based on the content analysis framework. The results show that the subjects have dichotomous views on the environment and acknowledge the adverse effects of the current environmental crisis, claiming that human beings are the main cause of it. The study subjects understand that there is a narrow interface between health and the environment and that the economically less privileged populations are those most affected by environmental damage. It is concluded that deepening the debate on the subject in the process of providing training and professional practice in health is fundamental in order to seek effective socioenvironmental responsibility among the social players involved in the sector.
health care professional; environmental health; training of human resources; environment