Introduction:

The National Curriculum Guidelines (NCGs) for the medical course, published in 2014, describe the expected competencies for graduating medical students. Objective: To investigate how medical students evaluate themselves in the area of Health Education.

Method:

Cross-sectional analytical study among student interns from four medical schools in Minas Gerais, Brazil. The questionnaire was based on the NGCs and substantiated by three key actions: ‘Individual and Collective Learning Needs Identification’; ‘Knowledge Construction and Socialization Promotion’; and ‘Scientific and Critical Thinking Promotion and Support for New Knowledge Production’. Descriptive and bivariate analysis was performed using Pearson’s Chi-square Test, with a significance level of 5%. The test assesssed performance in Health Education according to sex, year of undergraduate training and self-evaluation of experience in Primary Health Care (PHC).

Results:

A total of 524 students participated in the study, mostly females (57.0%), aged between 21 and 25 years (66.9%), in their final year of undergraduate training (65.3%), belonging to an academic league (55.6%) and having reported a positive experience in PHC (78.5%). The majority evaluate themselves as ‘very good’ at ‘learning with interprofessional relationships’ (69.0%), ‘identification of personal learning needs’ (63.5 %), and ‘promotion of education actions in Women’s Health’ (66.5%). Students evaluate themselves as ‘poor/satisfactory’ at ‘using information systems’ (33.8%), and ‘adoption of scientific methodology in critical reading of technical-scientific articles’ (21.2%). The following performances were associated to a ‘good/very good’ PHC experience: ‘support for new knowledge production’; ‘knowledge construction and socialization in the community’ and ‘promotion of education actions in Women’s Health’ (p < 0.05). For this last performance there is a significant difference in sex, where female students evaluated themselves better than male students (p < 0.05).

Conclusion:

A positive experience in PHC was associated with performances considered of fundamental importance to medical practice, both from an individual and collective perspective.

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