New national curricula guidelines that support the use of interprofessional education in the Brazilian context: An analysis of key documents

The National Curricular Guidelines (NCGs) are important documents for understanding the history of academic health professions education in Brazil. Key policies within the NCGs have helped to reorient health professions education and have stimulated curricular changes, including active learning methodologies and more integrated teaching-service environments, and, more recently, have introduced interprofessional education (IPE) in both undergraduate and postgraduate sectors. This article presents the findings of a study that examined the NCGs for nursing, dentistry, and medicine courses as juridical foundations for adopting strategies that promote IPE across higher education institutions in Brazil. We employed a comparative and exploratory documentary analysis to understand the role of IPE and collaborative practices in NCGs for the three largest professions in Brazil. Following a thematic analysis of these texts, four key themes emerged: faculty development; competencies for teamwork; curricular structure; and learning metrics. Key findings related to each of these themes are presented and discussed in relation to the wider interprofessional literature. The article goes on to argue that the statements contained in the NCGs about adoption of IPE and collaborative practices will have an important influence in shaping the future of health professions education in Brazil.