The experience of Unifesp Baixada Santista in Interprofessional Education

Abstract

The Federal University of São Paulo (Unifesp) campus in Baixada Santista is a Brazilian educational institution that has relevant experience in the process of implementing Interprofessional Education (IPE). For approximately 15 years, this university has been investing in changes in its pedagogical project with the intention of incorporating IPE in the perspective of comprehensive care, according to the guidelines of the Brazilan Unified Health System (SUS). Professional practice; interdisciplinarity; interprofessionality; the student’s active posture in the construction of knowledge; the teacher’s mediating posture in the teaching-learning process; integration with the community; collaborative learning; teaching, research and extension; academic mobility; faculty development; the dynamism of the pedagogical plan constitutes the milestones for the success of Unifesp Baixada Santista in the IPE. This work aims to present the experience of this university in the process of implementing IPE in its pedagogical project. Based on scientific evidence, Unifesp Baixada Santista advances in the implementation of IPE in the curricular designs of Physical Education, Physiotherapy, Nutrition, Psychology, Occupational Therapy and Social Work courses, as it has already achieved promising effects in the teaching-learning process of students, as well as in teacher training and health work, towards a more collaborative and interprofessional practice. Systematized in four training axes, the curriculum of health courses at this institution clearly demonstrates the intentionality of the application of IPE and identifies in PET-Health/Interprofessionality an important program to support it in this process. Unifesp Baixada Santista recognizes that there are challenges in this experience, such as IPE faculty development, the organization of the interprofessional curricular internship and the involvement of managers, municipalities and institutional support and integration.