León CP, García MAJ, Segredo PAM, Galindo RK

Language: Spanish
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ABSTRACT

Introduction: health surveillance is one of the strengths of the Cuban National Health System. Healthcare professionals play an important role as active surveillance agents at every level within the system.
Objective: describe the design of health surveillance in Cuban undergraduate and graduate medical training syllabuses, and assess the way in which these contents contribute to the professional profile and to the aims and competences to be achieved.
Method: a cross-sectional study was conducted of medical training syllabuses from the specialty of Comprehensive General Medicine, the management diploma course for Primary Health Care, and the master's degree in Primary Health Care. The techniques used were syllabus review and content analysis.
Results: the topic of health surveillance is dealt with in seven subjects of medical studies. The subject Public Health is the only one in which the topic is based on distinct skills, objectives and contents, whereas Comprehensive General Medicine does not include it. A similar situation was found in the Comprehensive General Medicine residency program. The course Epidemiology and Public Health, a component of the master's degree in Primary Health Care, contains objectives and contents specifically related to the topic of Health Surveillance. The remaining courses include contents which contribute to the development of basic surveillance skills and competences.
Conclusions: design of the medical training curriculum and the Comprehensive General Medicine residency program does not include the topic of health surveillance, negatively affecting the development of a public health mindset and the attitude of medical professionals toward public health situations.