Integrating medical and health multiprofessional residency programs: the experience in building an interprofessional curriculum for health professionals in Brazil

Abstract

Background: The aging of the population demands a development of the skills of different health professionals working in teams due to the complexity of the problems arising from this population. This article discusses the integration of two residency programs: medical and multiprofessional. The challenge was to construct a curriculum with practical and theoretical activities that develop competencies within the scope of interprofessional education, ensuring the necessary depth and detail of study in all the professional areas involved in the development of specific skills.

Methods: The curricular integration was accomplished by conducting workshops with the participation of coordinators from both programs and service areas, preceptors of medicine, nursing, nutrition, psychology, physiotherapy, and social services. In these workshops, we agreed upon the goals, general and specific competencies, the standard weekly schedule, practice scenarios, evaluation, and selection.

Results: The interprofessional program has 26 residents, of which 6 are physicians 4 each from the other areas, with 25 preceptors from the 6 areas that comprise the program. The residents develop their training in six practical scenarios distributed between the first and second years with increasing complexity.

Discussion: The program is based on guidelines, physical conditions and human resources that allow for the overcoming of barriers to the development of interprofessional education and collaborative practice.