The International Day of Africa, celebrated on May 25, was quite special for the Santos Dumont Institute (ISD) in the year 2018: Carolina Damasio, medical preceptor of Anita Garibaldi Health Education and Research Center (CEPS), defended his master's thesis “ 'I had no idea what I could learn here…' – Health professions education and cultural competence” in the very Quilombola Community that hosted his studies: Capoeiras, located in Macaíba (RN). The academic work, carried out within the scope of the Professional Master's Degree in Health Education (MPES), of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN), analyze data from the Belly Project, developed since 2015 by ISD, in Capoeiras. The infectologist doctor based her research on the experiences obtained in the undergraduate course “Cultural Competence in Quilombola Women's Health Care”, offered for the first time in Brazil by the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at UFRN, in partnership with ISD.
SEE IMAGES OF THE MASTER DEFENSE IN CAPOEIRAS
Carolina explains that the purpose of the course is to contribute to the development of cultural competence in the training of health professionals, which, according to her, is the professional's ability to offer quality care to patients from ethnically and culturally diverse backgrounds, respecting the values, individual or group beliefs and ways of life of the patient. She recalls that in many countries this reflection is already part of the training of health professionals, but few experiences of this nature are part of undergraduate curricula in Brazil. “The teaching-service-community integration is extremely important in the training of these future professionals, as it gives them the opportunity to experience and understand the contexts in which patients are inserted. So, in this way, this experience can help in understanding the difficulties, health and disease processes, cultural aspects and ways of life of these people”, analyzes the doctor.
Experience in Capoeiras unites mother-infant care and health education
Many people from Capoeiras were ready to attend the Master's defense, unprecedented in the Community and also in the History of UFRN, according to one of the members of the examining board, George Dantas de Azevedo, Director of Multicampi School of Medical Sciences of Rio Grande do Norte (EMCM/UFRN). In his speech after the defense, the Professor pointed out the moment as being of extreme importance within the 60 years of UFRN's existence, since for the first time in its history a master's defense was held in a rural community. “Making the University outside its walls is a life project for me,” emphasized George, who also reflected on possible developments of the Barriguda Project, with ever-increasing participation of the Community in decision-making.
During the argument, another member of the committee, Henry of Holland Campos, Rector of Federal University of Ceará (UFC), commented on the repercussions on the training of future health professionals who took the course offered in the context of the Barriguda Project: “The experience gives them almost an obligation to be more humane professionals, more open to understanding suffering, pain, with more compassion, because I think this is the most important and most beautiful thing in the health professions. Perhaps they will ask more questions, rather than thinking they have all the answers. They will try to speak in a more accessible way to patients. Perhaps they will learn to use both verbal and non-verbal communication. I think this is a way to really transform people.”
Reginaldo Freitas Junior, Professor guiding the Master’s thesis at MPES/UFRN and Director of Teaching and Research at ISD, said: “The vast majority of people in the world already believed that a machine heavier than air would never fly, until someone showed open for new possibilities and was able to change the reality that was set. This is what the Barriguda Project represents for the training of health professions and these are the people we want to train to strengthen our country's health system: open to new possibilities, capable of breaking established standards and transforming the adverse realities that surround them. Community-based education has this power and it is very important that ISD and UFRN are flying together in this direction.”
passed the discipline Cultural Competence in Quilombola Women's Health Care, 32 UFRN undergraduate students between 2016 and the first half of 2018. Renata de Paiva Pacheco, a student in the 7th period of the medical course and currently enrolled in the discipline, shared her impressions about this innovative academic experience, saying that it is the first time that she has seen a work being co-created based on the demands of the community itself. “We have a huge gap in the curriculum with regard to cultural competence work. It is necessary to understand that people's needs are not only in relation to physical illness or pathology, but that day-to-day concerns, what they understand health and disease to be are factors that influence the health condition, the well-being and their quality of life. And, as a professional, we need to understand this to be able to provide more effective assistance to all people”, reflected the student.
After the defense, community leaders spoke with emotion about the experience of hosting this historic moment. The President of the Quilombola Association of Residents of Capoeiras, Manuel Batista dos Santos, expressed, moved, his joy at seeing the community experiencing Carolina's master's defense, which was approved by all members of the committee. After the applause and having recovered from the tension of waiting for the result, Maria das Gracas Barbosa, a community leader from the Associação Quilombola dos Moradores de Capoeiras, said: “I thought it was a very new experience. They had never done that here. We heard about it, but coming here to do it… Wow! I'm thrilled so far. I thought it was too beautiful. Carol being evaluated here, waiting and we waited with her. It was really beautiful!”.
More about the Barriguda Project HERE.
See too:
Project Barriguda is awarded in international competition
Article from the newspaper Tribuna do Norte (RN):
Text and photos: Ariane Mondo / Ascom – ISD
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Santos Dumont Institute (ISD)
Social organization that maintains ties with the Ministry of Education (MEC) and whose mission is to promote education for life, forming citizens through integrated teaching, research and extension actions and to contribute to a fairer and more humane transformation of the Brazilian social reality.
