Associations and students ask for evaluation of medicine courses – 04/29/2023 – Education

Medical students and health organizations defend the need to create a new mechanism to assess the quality of courses in the area.

Currently, they are classified in the same way as other degrees, within the scope of Sinaes (National System for the Evaluation of Higher Education). The analysis includes the results obtained by students in the Enade (National Student Performance Examination), in addition to evaluations of institutions and courses.

The results comprise grades from 1 to 5. In theory, those who receive good grades can continue, while those who do poorly should make changes so as not to have the course closed. In practice, however, this is not what happens, say the entities.

“In Brazil, no one with grades 1 and 2 is disqualified”, says Elizabeth Guedes, president of Anup (National Association of Private Universities). “The Inep [órgão do governo federal responsável pelas avaliações] doesn’t care. There are schools that have not received visits from evaluators for ten years”.

According to the MEC (Ministry of Education), the last evaluations took place in 2019 and the results are available on the internet.

“We have evaluations, but how many schools have closed due to lack of quality?”, asks Donizetti Giamberardino, counselor of the CFM (Conselho Federal de Medicina) . “Assessments have to be carried out with due rigor.”

For the entity, it is necessary to create specific rules for medical courses and establish minimum measurable parameters to be followed. Otherwise, the absence of metrics will always favor different interpretations.

An example: the latest ordinance on new medical courses mentions the need for “adequate, sufficient and quality public equipment” for students to practice. Doctors and students ask that the text be clearer about what this means and define a number —”five public hospital beds for each student in the municipality where the course is held, monitoring of each Family Health team by a maximum of three students from graduation and the existence of a teaching hospital”.

One option, say the doctors, would be to adopt the Saeme (Accreditation System of Medical Schools), created by the CFM to certify the quality of undergraduate courses. According to the model, institutions request their registration and carry out a self-assessment. Then the documentation is reviewed by external evaluators and the group visits the campus.

The process, however, does not certify the quality of the students and, in this sense, the AMB (Brazilian Medical Association) and the Aemed-BR (Association of Medical Students of Brazil) also ask for a test for the students. For them, the Enade (exam that assesses undergraduate students in the country) cannot measure either the theoretical knowledge or the practical performance of undergraduates.

“Given the scenario of medical education in Brazil, we are in favor of a proof of proficiency”, says Rafael Lobo, president of Aemed-BR. According to the students, the best option would be to apply a serial assessment at the end of each cycle –basic, clinical and internship– as it allows for the necessary adjustments to be made during training.

Another measure would be to adopt a single assessment at the end of graduation, as is the case with law students in the OAB (Brazilian Bar Association) exam. “As much as we criticize this model, we see it as an alternative. What you can’t do is leave it as it is, with institutions that don’t provide support and doctors without any expertise”, says Lobo.