Planetary health and health education in Brazil: towards better trained future health professionals

Leal, Walter ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1241-5225, Eustachio, João Henrique Paulino Pires, Paucar-Caceres, Alberto ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4690-561X, Cavalcanti-Bandos, Melissa Franchini, Nunes, Cintia, Vílchez-Román, Carlos, Quispe-Prieto, Silvia and Brandli, Luciana Londero (2022) Planetary health and health education in Brazil: towards better trained future health professionals. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19 (16). p. 10041. ISSN 1660-4601

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Abstract

Brazil is Latin America’s largest country and has a strong economy, but it is also characterised by many inequalities. These are very conspicuous in the health sector, particularly in health education, which is expected to modernise according to the planetary health (PH) perspective. This paper describes the health education scenario in Brazil and undertakes an analysis of the postgraduate health programmes and policies in place, identifying the extent to which these support the cause of PH. To achieve this goal, this paper deploys a bibliometric analysis to gain a better understanding of the research streams related to higher education and PH. In addition, it presents and discusses selected case studies in the field and cross-checks documents from the Brazilian Ministry of Education against five domains of PH in education. The results indicate that despite some progress to date and the fact that some programmes are in place, there is a perceived need for policies and efforts from education organisations towards connecting PH principles in the education of current and future health professionals.