Continuing and online education for health professionals in Brazil: Results from UNA-SUS

Abstract

Abstract UNA-SUS System was established to enforce the National Policy of Continuing Education in Health, and it is composed of a Network of 34 public institutions (mostly Universities), responsible for online educational offerings, in response to the demands generated by the Ministry of Health. The system produces courses that are committed to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (specially Goals 3, 4, 5, 10, and 16). Objectives to verify the profile of users and the penetrance of UNA-SUS online courses and their contribution to the democratization of Continuing Education of health workers. Methods Data were collected from Arouca Platform and statistical analysis was performed by the Open Free Software R 3.6. Results There were more than 2.8 million enrollments, counting more than 1 million students, from every SUS health regions, Brazilian municipalities and states. Courses with the greatest demands were related to important clinical situations faced by the Primary Care professionals in Brazil. There was a predominance of women (80%), whites (36%), followed by browns (33%), singles (57%) and in the age group of 21 to 40 years (70%). Nurses, doctors and dentists were the professionals who most sought courses at UNA-SUS. No relationship was found between enrollment in population-weighted self-instructional courses and the Brazilian State HDI, but a negative relationship was established between the Gini coefficient and enrollment in courses, showing that the more unequal the region, the fewer enrolled students it had. Conclusions The UNA-SUS is effective in providing continuing education through free, online course offerings, reaching users from different Brazilian geographic regions, including those leaving in areas with few presential or free educational opportunities, contributing to improve the service offered by the Brazilian Public Health System. Key messages Continuing education for Health Professionals in Brazil using online education courses is democratic. UNA-SUS is an effective system to consolidate the National Policy of Continuing Education.