A little bit of history...

The current Graduate Program in Collective Health at UFRN began its academic activities in February 1978, under the name of a Master's Degree in Social Dentistry, and was approved by the UFRN-CONSEPE Higher Education, Research and Extension Collegiate, through Resolution 60/77, of June 3, 1977, becoming the first "stricto sensu" graduate course of this University

The proposal of a Program in Social Dentistry at UFRN is related to the great prestige attributed to the Faculty of Dentistry, for having an undergraduate course considered to be, at the time, of high level within the local University and in the country, as well as by the presence of qualified personnel in that area, at doctoral level. It was also an important conjunctural moment due to the arrival of the American program "Health Opportunities for People Everywhere - HOPE" that through an agreement with UFRN and the Secretariat of Health of the RN, started to work in outreach programs through the Preventive Dentistry course of UFRN’s Dentistry Department. In this context, in 1978, the Master's Program in Social Dentistry was implemented at UFRN, with a strong influence of this project, both in the support offered through specialized faculty, and through material resources of didactic and bibliographic nature.

The lines of research defined in the program design were initially two: "Epidemiology of Prevalent Oral Problems in the Northeastern Region and Subjects of the Dental Field" and the "Use of Fluorite in the Prevention of Dental Cavities". From 1985, initiatives have begun to introduce work on a different theoretical level, seeking in the methodology the historical and dialectical analysis of the object under study. There was a progressive decrease in the influence of the Hope Project and, from the first half of the 1990s, an expansion of the faculty occurred, but still with master’s level professionals. Throughout the 1990s there was a massive training of faculty, with all faculty involved in undergraduate and graduate teaching having obtained doctoral level.

After the 20 years of its creation and accounting for the training of numerous professors and technicians, both within UFRN itself and in many other universities in the region and in the country, in 2003, the course was subjected to a self evaluation process which resulted in the resizing of its actions. The main change was the structuring of a new area of concentration that allowed greater comprehension of subjects, considering the themes related to Health Promotion and Preventive Dentistry, associated to those of clinical emphasis.

The Program reaffirmed a broad area of action, addressing issues related to health promotion and prevention of oral health problems, associated with those specifically addressed to the field of Collective Health. In addition, the Program decided to remain open to the expansion of new areas, according to the institutional potential of professors and researchers. In this sense, as a result of this institutional action, new professors were incorporated to the permanent faculty.

The building of the old Graduate Program in Collective Health was orchestrated due to the high and diversified demand for guidance that came to the professors of the former Graduate program in Dentistry. The design of the program was carried out in the year of 2010 and, being approved in 2011. It was a project that, besides contemplating the diversity of studies carried out by the teachers who constituted the permanent teaching staff, who already worked in the previous Program in a multiprofessional and interdisciplinary way, contemplated the extreme necessity of training and continued education of a plethora of professionals coming from undergraduate courses at our university and universities in neighboring states, health services and faculty of several teaching and research institutions in the North-Northeast.

The context presented was based on a favorable political scenario from the point of view of successful articulations in the institutional scope, from the professors and researchers of the area, as well as on the search for interaction with institutional sectors of the scientific and technical community in the field of Collective Health. In addition to the institutional political conditions reflected in the effective support of UFRN’s Vice-Presidency of Graduate Studies and the strategic vision of articulating the present proposal to a project of institutional development that constituted the strengthening of Collective Health at UFRN, counting on the support of a group of militant Collective Health professionals of the State of Rio Grande do Norte, graduates of UFRN, mainly, but with the collaboration and much work of personalities of the national Dentistry.

The proposal was also based on the permanent faculty of the area of concentration in Collective Health that maintained compatible intellectual production for this added of two new professors of the Department of Collective Health, a newly hired professor in the Department of Dentistry for the area of Collective Health and a professor of the Department of Morphology of UFRN. Thus, the area of Collective Health is structured on the basis of two broad and interdisciplinary lines of research. One of the lines was related to the "distribution and determinants of health impairment in human populations" which contemplated epidemiological studies on major health problems and another in "study of health policy, management and planning", which encompasses all efforts to understand how health policies are structured and their reflexes on the Brazilian population, as well as several issues related to health planning and management and also evaluation studies that are in line with the guidelines of the Ministry of Health.

The Dentistry area was structured as a concentration area of the new Graduate Program in Collective Health, and its previous independent lines of research were restructured. These lines of research were based on the old lines of Graduate Program in Dentistry (Area of Concentration in Periodontics and Dental Prosthesis), respecting the new configuration assumed by the Graduate Program in Collective Health, with incorporation of new professors contracted by the Department of Dentistry. Thus, at the time of its creation, the Dentistry concentration area within the Collective Health program had four lines of research. These lines maintained the base of the former Periodontics area of concentration, and was enlarged by the incorporation of the Dental Prosthesis studies. The scope of the Dental Prosthesis area was very important for the development of research in this field in the Northeast, since in our region there were still no programs in this area.

In addition to these areas, which were the basis for the construction of the lines of the new Dentistry concentration area, a line of research of the extinct concentration area in Preventive and Social Dentistry related to studies on the main diseases of oral health (new denomination) line was also incorporated. In addition, a last line of research that included the covering of basic studies for surgical procedures affected to the rehabilitation of craniofacial tissues and organs and their integration with biomaterials was also incorporated to the program.

Thus, today, the area of concentration in dentistry has three lines of research: a) Studies of the epidemiologically relevant diseases to orofacial health; b) Study of technologies applied to dentistry and c) Biopathology of craniofacial tissues and their integration with biomaterials. The previous area of concentration in Collective Health, in turn, maintained the two lines of research for masters and doctoral courses: (a) Distribution and determinants of health problems in human populations and (b) Policies, management and planning in Health.

Current Perspectives

The perspective of the program is that this configuration of broad areas and lines allows an expanded and integral vision of health care, from promotion to rehabilitation, health work and public health policies. It was noted in this sixth year of operation of the Program in this new configuration that the participation of professionals from different areas of training as masters and doctoral students, coexisting daily and discussing together in the disciplines of the structuring teaching nucleus has contributed greatly to the academic training of the students. ensuring the structuring of multiprofessional and interdisciplinary projects.

Other important aspects in the achievement of the objectives of our graduate program are relate to its internationalization, to the fundraising through projects that guarantee its interdisciplinarity, constant evaluation of the faculty and its great demand by students, which was is proven by the high number of students involved in the selection processes and special-student programs. Also in this regard, for the sixth consecutive year, the partnership with the Public Health Agency of Barcelona (Spain) has enabled the visiting of a Professor who teaches the discipline of Social Determinants of Health in Spanish, thus ensuring the provision of a course in a foreign language. It is believed that there was a qualitative leap in the training of students who once discussed in a poor way the social determinants of health, despite living immersed in inequalities.

The constant evaluation of the teaching staff of the Program has enabled their adaptation to the conditions of permanent teachers and collaborators. With regard to the recruitment of new teachers, the Program regularly holds, before the student selection process for the year, an application for teachers to join the faculty. Scientific publication within the scope of the lines of research of the Collective Health Program, proposal of participation in courses (proposal of new ones of contemporary character) and the projects developed are some of the evaluated criteria.

Another important aspect of our program, which reinforces its regional importance, has been the great demand for the selection process of regular and special students. Each year the dispute for vacancies becomes more fierce. Since 2012, the average number of students that signed up for the master's degree program was of almost 200 candidates, and for the PhD, the average was almost 60 candidates. In relation to special students, the Program opens places for selection after the enrollment of regular students for enrollment in some subjects. In the 2016 selection process more than 100 special students were enrolled in courses within the Program. This policy of opening vacancies for special students aims to provide the qualification of the projects of students who weren’t approved in the selection process as well as for students who did not enroll in the selection process. In this way, we are qualifying students that may become potential candidates for the next selection process and may eventually integrate the student body of the Program.

Finally, an important milestone for the Program was reached in 2015, with the creation of the "Plural Science Magazine", the vehicle for scientific dissemination of UFRN’s Graduate Program in Collective Health. This is an electronic publication housed in the Portal of Periodicals of our University, managed by Central Library Zila Mamede (http://www.periodicos.ufrn.br/rcp). It is aimed at the university-level public, undergraduate students, graduate students and health professionals in general. It aims above all to stimulate the debate of ideas, the integration of knowledge and the diffusion of the publications in the health area as a whole.

As the title itself illustrates, the journal is plural, both in the sense that it covers the diversity of studies and works that are housed in the area of Health, and in the plurality of types of work that can be submitted, whether original scientific articles, reports of clinical cases, critical analysis articles, articles of Systematic Review and Meta-analysis (Quantitative Studies) or Meta-syntesis (Qualitative Studies).

The journal has an Editorial Board constituted of 57 Brazilian and foreign professors from different health specialties and related areas, from the most prestigious universities in Brazil, such as USP, UNESP, UFMG, UFMG, UFBA, UFPE, UFCG, UFPI, UERJ, UEL , UESB, UEPB, UERN, UNISUL and UFRN, as well as renowned professors from Spain (precisely the National Public Health Agency of Barcelona and the University of Zaragoza) and the University of Mexico.

In this way, the quadrennium 2013-2016 shows a program in constant evolution and maturity. From the point of view of the incorporation of new teachers in its two areas of concentration (Collective Health and Dentistry), the program had in 2013 30 teachers, of which 23 were permanent. In 2016 we are already 40 teachers, of whom 31 are permanent, distributed fairly evenly between the areas (15 are from the Dentistry area and 16 from the Public Health area). This puts the program within an important institutional perspective as it broadens the possibilities for human resource training in its areas of concentration while making the best use of the capacity of its staff of teachers. Following the latest policy directives from Capes and UFRN itself, the program has sought to incorporate newly graduated and young doctors, so that currently 5 professors fall into the category of Permanent Young Teacher (more detailed information below).

Regarding intellectual production, the program has maintained a relatively stable annual average of articles per permanent professor throughout the four-year period. However, the average score per teacher has increased, reflecting a reduction in the proportion of articles in the lower strata (B4 and B5) and an increase in the proportion of intermediary strata (B1 to B3) and higher (A1 and A2) strata. In a preliminary assessment, we are likely to have a four-year average of about one-fifth of the publications in the A1 and A2 strata which, although not yet an ideal proportion, indicates that skilled intellectual production has great potential for growth in the coming years.

Mission of the Program

To contribute to the continuous improvement and consolidation of the Unified Health System, based on the conceptual deepening of its principles, the search for new proposals of technological strategies in the work processes, the investigation of new alternatives to increase coverage to the population, in the development of research in multiple scenarios and the aggregation of appropriate technologies for health promotion, prevention, early diagnosis and rehabilitation, aiming at improving the health condition and quality of life of the population.

Graduates profile

Health professionals able to develop activities in higher education, characterized by teaching, research and outreach that represent real improvement of the quality of life of the population, based on the results of research, scientific knowledge and the link with the community.

Pedagogical Design of the Program

The Graduate Program in Collective Health is developed from curricular components that aim at the formation of a future teacher able to build skills and competences for the development of actions in the dimension of teaching, research and outreach in higher education. In order to do so, it predicts the student's role as responsible for constructing his own knowledge, with a critical and reflexive posture, based on research and his own experiences as guiding elements of his future teaching role. Because of this, it is the responsibility of the teaching staff of the Program to offer didactic activities committed to the students' search for theoretical reference, reflection and creativity as mechanisms for learning and developing scientific research.

In this way, the faculty should be able to think about the perspective of permanent education as a strategy for constant improvement processes in the various areas of knowledge, based on active learning methodologies.

Information: Office of the Graduate Program

Secretary: Lucas Soares de Araújo

Av. Sen. Salgado Filho, 1787 - Lagoa Nova, Natal / RN. Department of Dentistry

Phone: + 55-84-3342-2338

Opening hours: 7:30 AM to 11:30 AM / 1:30 PM to 5:30 PM

E-mail address: secretaria.ppgscol@ccs.ufrn.br / ppgscol@ccs.ufrn.br