Health education in a Biological Sciences and Nursing undergraduate perspective

Abstract

Acting in the Health Education (HE) process prioritizing the dialogical relationships between the actors involved has been a great challenge, whether in the school environment or in serving the community. Understanding that the initial training of professionals to exercise this practice is related to this reality, the study present sought to investigate of the HE understanding in the perspective of Biological Sciences and Nursing undergraduate students from a federal public university in the countryside of Alagoas. A qualitative approach involving 261 students was applied. Of these, 139 were from the Biological Sciences and 122 Nursing undergraduate students. The conceptions were obtained through a semi-structured questionnaire and organized into a textual corpus. After applying the Descending Hierarchical Classification (DHC) method using the Iramuteq® software, three classes emerged, which were then explored and discussed based on the literature. A predominance of the concept of disease-centered HE was noted (43.10%), especially among Biological Sciences students (X²= 8.37). The conception of health-centered HE was the second most prevalent (31.38%), followed by the conception of HE focused on quality of life (25.52%), both more predominant in nursing students. The results indicate that the biomedical HE model is rooted in the conceptions of the professionals in training, mainly in the Biological Sciences area. The transition to a critical and reflective model is most evident among nursing professionals. It is fundamental that the training of these professionals allows for the development of the necessary competences for educational work reflexive and dialogical, which provides individual emancipation and values the promotion of health in communities.