Research analyzes international area of the MH

A study that has as its object the professional who acts in the international area of the Ministry of Health (MH) was developed by a student of the MBA in Public Health Sérgio Alexandre Gaudêncio, aiming to map and analyse the contexts of action of this professional, from the definition of professional skills, in order to present guidelines for the definition of these competencies. His research finds that the topic health has broadened its scope of influence both in the national and international sphere. “In this, especially in recent decades, there is a growing interrelationship that pervades health thematic areas such as trade, intellectual property, finance, bio-safety, among others. All the complexity of the issue health nationwide reverberates on a global scale, imposing the need for coordinated articulated and negotiated actions, in this sphere of activity”, he highlights.

 

In this sense, the work of Gaudêncio contextualizes and analyzes the scope of work of those acting in the international area of the MH with the development of professional skills. His research discussed the concepts and definitions of professional competence in the field of health, global health diplomacy and health workforce. “The worker must be prepared not only to perform regular tasks effectively in his/hercontext of acting, but also for unusual situations, to which he/she will have to mobilize manyresources to find solutions,” he stated

 

For Gaudêncio, this professional will need more than formal knowledge, although these are essential, but also to be prepared for the “know and act”, i.e. adequate knowledge, skills and other resources available and learn to use them effectively in real situations. The central argument of the dissertation is the need for qualification of this actor including the dynamics of global health, having as a principle the professional skills that enable, from his/her essential functions, to construct an expanded framework of the elements that are constituents of his/her scope of action.

Discussed from the perspective of the National Health and Strategies Plans , the analysis of student notes gaps in the structuring in connection with the performance of MH in international area. Being the first purpose of the consensual aspects among most scholars about competence, it is highlighted that the plans feature points of limitations for the development of professional competencies for those who work with the issue of global health and health diplomacy.

Two strands are presented by the student: material and cognitive resources. As for material resources it is constructed the historical profile of the bodies responsible for global health topics, and analyzed their organizational structures, funding, and interrelationships with other organs, outlining the field of action of the professional who operates in the area of international health. As for cognitive resources, it is infered, from the data presented, the areas of knowledge required for the development of professional skills in the area of international health.

The research presents the evolution of the issue of the health workforce (FTS) from the involvement of international organizations with the issue, especially the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Pan American Health Organization (Paho). Then, after consideration of the definitions of what FTS is, it proposes a perspective of professional insertion in that scope.

Gaudêncio explains that international health fora, fora in which health is issue or on which the decisions may directly affect health, and also within the framework of regional associations of blocks of countries, and bilateral and triangular cooperation are contexts of action whose discussion is preceded by the Brazil´s historic character in the participation in discussions on the global health theme since the first international health conferences.

Sérgio Alexandre Gaudêncio is specialist in International Relations of the Ministry of Health since 2011, with specialization in International Health and Diplomacy by ENSP (2009), and in Public Policy and Strategic Management of Health, also by ENSP (2006). His dissertation, entitled Contexts for the definition of occupational skills to those who act in the international health area was presented in 26/8, at Fiocruz Brasilia.