EDITORIAL
Ten years of Professional Master Degree in Nursing Care of Fluminense Federal University
Zenith Rosa Silvino1
1Fluminense Federal University
ABSTRACT
In 2014 the Professional Master Degree Program in Nursing Care (MPEA) of Fluminense Federal University (UFF) will celebrate ten years since the beginning of its first class and twelve years since its approval by the Coordination of Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES). Being a pioneer in the Nursing field, the origins of this type of education and the challenges faced by the MPEA in his career are being recovered
Descriptors: Nursing; Post-Graduation; Professional Education; Scientific Research and Technological Development; Research Financing.
In 2014, the Professional Master Degree in Nursing Care (MPEA) of Nursing School Aurora de Afonso Costa (EEAAC) of Fluminense Federal University celebrates ten years since the beginning of its first class and twelve years since its approval by the Coordination of Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES). It was the first stricto sensu professional program in the great health care area at UFF, as well as in the Nursing area in Brazil to operate non-stop until today. It should be noticed that the first Brazilian course of this kind in Nursing was the one at Sao Paulo Federal University (UNIFESP), which is not operating anymore(1).
The discussions about the necessity of professional master degree course related specifically to professional education came to attention in the 1990s (2), culminating with the issue of CAPES Decree nr 80 in 1998(3) which disposes about the program’s recognition. The first professional master degree courses (MPs) were presented to CAPES in 1997(4). With the MPs increasing development, in 2009 this modality of education was regulated with the issue of Decree nr 07(5) which was substituted by Decree nr 17 (6). Still under CAPES regulation, the MPs must follow the Decree nr 01(7) which defines, for evaluation purposes, the different categories of professors and Decree nr 02(8) from 2012 that regulates, for organizational purposes, such categories of professors.
The MP is an education modality that faces the issue which emerges from the student professional field, applying the knowledge to solve the problem. It is not about repeating solutions already found, but of knowing them in order to propose a new solution (9). It is a master degree for those who work.
The main difference between academic master degree (MA) and MP resides in the product, that is, the expected result. “In the MA the intention is to create a researcher, in a long term, by immersing him in research itself. In the MP, there is also an immersion in the research, but the objective is to create someone who, in the professional world out of academia is able to localize, recognize, identify and, above all, use the research in a way to add value to his activities, whether they are personal or social” (10:15). By the exposed, there can be clearly observed the difference of the student profile in this education modality.
An important issue related to the MPs is their financing. Having the MPs the self-financing aspect in their beginning, it is difficult to survive when inserted in public universities, because according to the law, the student cannot be charge directly.
This way the resources are the contracts and/or the conventions with institutions that want to invest in the qualification of its professionals; however, in Nursing this is too complicated.
The experience with MPEA states the difficulties in finding companies and other government offices to finance the qualification of nurses for a practice that will generate benefits to the institution and the final client. Several initiatives with the Health Care and Social Assistance Secretary Office, SUS hospitals network, among others, were pointless, although they recognize the importance of the MP to the health care/nursing qualification.
Great part of MPEA students make great efforts to afford the costs of its product and compensate the time destined to the course with their original institutions.
About financing and product, there can be observed that the final production of MPEA student is directly connected to his financial status, that is, his capacity to afford the production costs; the objective is to solve his problem in a practical scenario with solutions within his reach and that make his work easier, benefiting this way his original institution and also the other nurses, since the choice of the object of study considers the day-to-day problems of practice. There is not a formal culture in universities network that can support the development of technological solutions for health care; everything is based on individual knowledge from several sectors/actors: software programmer, clinical analysis laboratories; editorials, among others.
A feasible product for a professional master degree course should be compatible with the necessities of nursing practice scenarios, capable of being completed in a time determined by CAPES for the completion of the course, and within the financial sufficiency of the student.
It should also bring benefits for the student’s original institutions and the final user of these services, whether in the health care, educational or managerial perspective.
The creation of patents, besides a high cost, demands time that is more than the one estimated for the completion of the course. It should be also considered that the clientele that come to MPs is composed by nurses who are away from the academia and need a certain time to appropriate and apply the knowledge based on methodological strictness and scientific fundamentals.
In this context, there can be reiterated the interpretation of MP rules from the theoretical perspective of Michel De Certeau(11) about the strategies and tactics. Strategic and tactical perspectives are elements that try and tend to balance the forces between those who propose the strategies (dominant) and those who use them and their tactics (dominated). In this scenario, the strategies are dictated by institutions or by government offices; they are ruled by laws; that is, they emanate from the power instances. On the other hand, the tactics are different forms of appropriating the strategies developed by those who are subjected to the power structures.
In the case of UFF’s MPEA, the interpretation lies within the tactic perspective of a group of professors and students in face of the strategies put on the Nursing MPs. Several tactics are used in the development of a program to face the ideology that the rules are general and applied to each and any MP, not analyzing the specificity of each area. It is a question of survival being among many areas that seek possibilities of many different financing. After all, the nurses keep inventing and reinventing themselves to provide a quality health care to the less favored – the SUS users.
REFERENCES
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11. De Certeau M. A escrita da história. Tradução Maria de Lourdes Menezes. 2ª Ed. Rio de Janeiro: Forense Universitária, 2007.
Received: 10/10/2013
Revised: 10/10/2013
Approved: 11/10/2013