Amidst people with Covid-19 in two public hospitals in Natal, the routine of physical therapist Valéria Azevedo from Rio Grande do Norte is divided between choosing the appropriate device to provide oxygen in the beds, participating in intubation and extubation procedures – that is, inserting or removing a tube or probe through the nose or mouth of patients – preparing artificial ventilators and techniques to improve the respiratory function of those fighting for their lives. A job, she says, that is full of challenges.
“We, physiotherapists, are part of the multidisciplinary monitoring required for Covid patients, as it is a disease with multiple symptoms and effects. I am an intensive care physiotherapist and I work on shifts. It is not easy at all,” she observes, who is now preparing for another challenge in her career: starting her doctorate.
Valéria is from Currais Novos, in Rio Grande do Norte, and is one of the faces behind the indicators and goals of the Santos Dumont Institute (ISD) evaluated by the Ministry of Education (MEC) – and detailed from this Monday (12) in the series of reports #PorDentroDoISD.
The Institute's 2020 Annual Report, which brings together the results achieved in 13 quality indicators involving areas such as education, scientific production and management, will be presented on April 26 to the Ministry's Management Contract Monitoring and Evaluation Committee (CAA). Click here to access the full report.
The MEC has financed the ISD's activities since 2014 and the CAA is responsible for supervising, monitoring and evaluating the Institute's performance, in accordance with the goals and indicators agreed upon in this contract.
Master's in Neuroengineering
Valéria, citada no início da reportagem, ajuda a compor um dos indicadores relativos a 2020 que serão analisados: o “Índice de sucesso do mestrado”, que avalia o tempo de conclusão dos alunos no Programa de Pós-graduação em Neuroengenharia do Instituto Internacional de Neurociências Edmond e Lily Safra (IIN-ELS), do ISD – o único do Brasil aprovado pela Capes nesta área do conhecimento. Valéria terminou o curso em 23 meses. O prazo médio registrado pelos alunos foi de 24,9.
It also portrays the multiple paths that professionals trained with a Master's degree in Neuroengineering by the Institute have followed in the market.
Regarding the Master's Degree Success Rate, of the 15 ISD master's students expected to graduate in 2020, 9 defended their dissertations within the regular course deadline of up to two years. On average, it took 24.9 months for students to defend their dissertations, since data collection for master's degree research was interrupted due to the pandemic.
With this result, the Institute achieved 70.6% of the target established for the year.
The research coordinator and manager of the Edmond and Lily Safra International Institute of Neuroscience, Edgard Morya, explains that the pandemic delayed the completion of some work and that this ended up being reflected in the indicator at a time of extreme need.
“We had some changes in the deadlines (for dissertation defenses) for the master’s degree, but they didn’t have such a big impact when compared to other institutions. We had to give students a little more time to finish, so as not to put their health at risk,” he explained during the presentation of the results achieved in 2020 to the ISD Board of Directors on February 24. The Board of Directors is the Institute’s highest decision-making body and brings together representatives from the MEC and other government ministries and entities from areas such as science, education, health and industry. The members must approve the ISD’s annual report before it is submitted to the Monitoring and Evaluation Committee of the Ministry of Education’s Management Contract.
Institute surpasses the rate of success of former students in the job market
Another indicator analyzed by this Commission, the Graduate Performance Index for the Master's Degree in Neuroengineering, reveals that in 2020 the ISD exceeded its target in this field, with all students who graduated from the Institute employed in different areas of the job market during the period.
The Institute's Annual Report shows that the 19 masters in Neuroengineering graduated in 2019 were active in the market in 2020. Of these, 15 (79%) worked in academia as teachers or students; 3 (15.7%) were in the market as consultants or in other activities and 1 (5.3%) became a researcher.
For Edgard Morya, the result is positive not only in terms of achieving a target, but also because the Institute is training qualified professionals. “We had a very good result in this indicator in 2020. We exceeded the target, but the idea is not to focus only on the target. The idea is to focus on how much the Institute can do to ensure that students have something positive in their professional careers, on how we are helping them to evolve. Many students are leaving the Institute and going to other countries, to other large universities in Brazil, and/or contributing to the market. This is a very positive result,” he said, also during the presentation of the results to the ISD Board of Directors in February.
FUTUROS DOUTORES
A survey carried out by the ISD Academic Secretariat shows that 14 masters in Neuroengineering graduated by the Institute between 2018 and 2020 were approved in doctoral programs inside or outside Brazil in the period between January 2020 and March 2021.
These are Masters in Neuroengineering who are spread across institutions such as the State University of Campinas (Unicamp), Federal University of Uberlândia (UFU), Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN), University of Stuttgart, in Germany, and Florida International University, in the United States. Physiotherapy, Neuroscience, Psychobiology and Electrical Engineering are some of the areas in which these students who graduated from the Master's program are pursuing in academia.
“It is very interesting to see the students we have worked with for two years gaining ground in other places. This ends up being an achievement for us as well and it reveals not only the quality of the Master’s degree, but the diversity of areas that a Neuroengineer can pursue in their career,” declared the coordinator of the Master’s degree in Neuroengineering and professor-researcher at IIN-ELS, Fabrício Brasil.
Valéria, a physiotherapist and neuroengineer who is strengthening the fight against Covid-19 in Rio Grande do Norte, received her master's degree in 2020 and was approved for a doctorate in Physiotherapy at UFRN in early 2021. This was the most recent of the 14 candidates approved in doctorate programs in Brazil and abroad since last year. In the reports that the ISD presents to the MEC, she will be included in the Graduate Performance Index for 2021, whose performance will be evaluated next year.
For her, the experience in the Master's in Neuroengineering enabled an exchange of knowledge between various specialties and was fundamental for the work she carries out today on the front line against Covid-19 and beyond this field.
Uniting theory and practice
“In the ICU, I work with a multidisciplinary team and my experience in the master’s degree helped me improve my communication and coordination skills with professionals from different areas. I was able to learn how to integrate health theories and practices, in addition to advancing knowledge in new technologies,” she describes.
What he learned in his master's degree, he adds, was also essential for his approval for his doctorate. “In fact, one of the techniques that I will use in my doctorate was part of my experience in my Master's degree at ISD, Eye-Tracking, which is basically a non-invasive technique for collecting data related to cognition and behavior,” he adds.
Após a conclusão do Mestrado em Neuroengenharia, Valéria continua desenvolvendo uma pesquisa no ISD, contemplada com uma bolsa do Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPQ) em parceria com a Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (Fiocruz), onde estuda sequelas urológicas associadas
to Congenital Zika Virus Syndrome.
The subject was the theme of the research she developed during her two years as a master's student. According to her, the project developed aims to “contribute to qualifying and expanding the comprehensiveness of health care for people with disabilities, strengthening the interfaces between physiotherapy and urology for the diagnosis and treatment of urinary disorders presented”.
Clique abaixo para acessar resumos de todas as dissertações 2020 do Mestrado em Neuroengenharia, publicados no perfil do Instituto no Instagram, o @isdnarede.
View this photo on Instagram
INDICADOR E RESULTADOS
The Santos Dumont Institute is a non-profit Social Organization financed by the Ministry of Education and every six months presents to the Ministry a report of results related to 13 performance indicators involving areas such as education, scientific production and management with goals set out in the contract with the MEC.
The Monitoring and Evaluation Committee of the Management Contract of the Ministry of Education that will analyze the document brings together specialists linked to universities and other Federal Government bodies qualified in the area of activity of Social Organizations and has, from the presentation of the ISD Annual Report, five days to evaluate and produce the monitoring report, in feedback on the results presented by the Institute.
Expectations for the Institute's annual assessment are positive, according to ISD's administrative director, Jovan Gadioli. “Despite the pandemic, we were able to achieve success in most of the performance indicators, so expectations are positive because we were able to obtain good results even in the face of the pandemic. In the half-year period, there was little tendency to meet most of the goals, and in the second half of the year we were able to successfully reverse this scenario,” he says.
The Monitoring and Evaluation Committee of the Ministry of Education Management Contract is composed of Ângela Maria Santana Carvalho, president of the committee and specialist in technology and innovation, Fábio César Braga, from the São Paulo State University (Unesp), Felipe Von Glehn, from the State University of Campinas (Unicamp), Lúcia Christina Iochida, from the MEC Higher Education Secretariat, Renato Evangelista de Araújo, from the Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE) and Sylvia Helena Figueiredo, representative of the Ministry of Economy.
