Global Journal of Human-Social Science, A: Arts and Humanities, Volume 22 Issue 7

The Use of Illness Narratives in Undergraduate Physiotherapy, Medicine, and Nutrition: Innovative Experiences at a University in São Paulo Maria Elisa Gonzalez Manso Abstract- With the purpose of consolidating the implementation of the National Curriculum Guidelines in the health area, an innovative project involving higher courses in Physiotherapy, Medicine and Nutrition was conceived at a University located in the city of São Paulo. This qualitative research brings the perceptions of the participating students about the project, regarding the analysis of the content of reflective portfolios and transcripts of conversation circles carried out after the collection of illness narratives by those undergraduates. The students were able to reflect on themes such as the multidimensionality of falling ill, comprehensive care, the need to incorporate psychosocial aspects for the person’s understanding, how much emotions are a factor in the illness experience and the need to broaden the perspective of such process. This activity is considered to have brought important reflections to those undergraduates towards the achievement of the current guidelines, contributing to a more humanistic and interdisciplinary approach in such professions. Keywords: higher education. curriculum. humanization of assistance. I. I ntroduction ith the advent of the 21st century, higher education in the health area has been widely debated in Brazil as well as in the world. This debate considers, as a premise, that future professionals do not have critical, reflective nor innovative training, much less one that is focused on the health needs of the people who will seek them. This is a premise supported by both the dissatisfaction of users and the health service workers themselves, since the scenario of diseases and health problems today is very different from what was observed until the middle of the last century, when most of the current curricular models of the undergraduate courses in the area were constructed. Since the 17th century, professionals involved in health care have had their training based on a model considered increasingly technical, where the focus is not on the person who gets sick, but, rather, on the organs affected by the various diseases. Authors 1,2 emphasize that the health sciences, based on an universal vision present in modernity, are guided by the fragmentation of the being, by hyperspecialization and by reductionism, following a model primarily based on the biological sciences and that is predominant in the training of health workers, be they doctors, nutritionists, physiotherapists, among others. This rationality was definitely incorporated and taken as a standard for the professional health education from 1910 onwards, with the advent of the Flexner Report. This report brings a model of health organization focused on cure and treatment, based on diseases, centered on the hospital and on the figure of the doctor, with strong investment in technologies and hyperspecialization. Based on this report, professionals such as physiotherapists, nutritionists and doctors, among others, began to be trained to work, primarily and almost exclusively, in the hospital environment, a role strengthened, in Brazil, by the National Higher Education Guidelines and Framework Law of 1968 3 . Despite the undeniable improvements to people's quality of life, today, the Flexner model has been criticized for excessive medicalization, high costs and the abusive use of technologies, in a process that, over the years, has excluded considerable portions of the world's population from having access to health care. It is a model of power, where the health professional determines the rules and norms of conduct that must be passively followed by the people who seek them. In this way, the protagonism is removed from the person and the professional becomes the only holder of knowledge about the body, dictating all standards 4 . Such criticism highlights the professional inadequacy for the current epidemiological scenario dominated by health problems and non-communicable diseases, especially mental health problems and the high prevalence of disabilities related to them, which require a graduate profile different from that prioritized by the Flexner model. This new framework highlights the need to train health professionals with a more caring perspective, possessing skills that make them capable of innovating and qualifying the current mode of care, while being critical and having the capacity for reflection, management and producing more positive results in the professional-ailing relationship. In this new context, bonding, communicational relationships, empathy, compassion, teamwork and respect for users' diversity, rights and autonomy are fundamental 4 . In order to implement changes in the profiles of graduates in the health area, the new National Curriculum Guidelines (NCG) were approved in 2001. W © 2022 Global Journals Volume XXII Issue VII Version I 1 ( ) Global Journal of Human Social Science - Year 2022 A Author: e-mail: maria.manso@prof.saocamilo-sp.br