Implantação da clínica-escola de fisioterapia na Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais: a prática na formação profissional

Abstract

Teaching clinics are strategic venues in health education, as they fulfill academic, clinical and social functions. They provide students with supervised practical experience, which is essential for the development of professional competencies, while also expanding population access to health services, in accordance with the principles of the Brazilian Unified Health System (SUS). Public universities are therefore responsible for training technically qualified and socially committed professionals, as established by the National Curriculum Guidelines and the National Health and Education Policies. In the Physical Therapy program at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), practical training is a structuring axis of the Pedagogical Project. However, despite recurring institutional initiatives throughout its history, the UFMG Physical Therapy program still does not have a Teaching Clinic. Since 2017, FISIOLAB, established as an Extension Project, has been performing, in practice, some of the functions of a Teaching Clinic, serving as a relevant setting for teaching, healthcare and extension, albeit with structural and regulatory limitations. Given this context, the general objective of this study was to analyze, from a historical and institutional perspective, the factors that influenced the creation of FISIOLAB and its potential to become a Physical Therapy Teaching Clinic. The specific objectives were to reconstruct the institutional landscape of student training practices, trace the history, and identify the actors involved in the creation of FISIOLAB, its educational and clinical roles, as well as to reflect on the institutional pathways for establishing teaching clinics at public universities. The theoretical framework is grounded in strategic health planning, the principles and legislation of the SUS, and the literature on learning health systems, practice settings, and teaching clinics. This is a qualitative, exploratory, and descriptive study, conducted through a case study involving document analysis and semi-structured interviews, analyzed using content analysis. The results show that the demand for a Teaching Clinic is historical, recurring, and structural, and that FISIOLAB has established itself as a relevant, albeit partial, institutional response to the gaps in practice settings. The establishment of a Teaching Clinic, especially from a multidisciplinary perspective, represents a strategic opportunity to enhance training for the SUS, expand the University’s social impact, and strengthen the integration between teaching, research, and extension. As a product, a Technical Report was developed, containing an institutional diagnosis and an action plan to support the implementation of the Teaching Clinic. It is expected that these results will contribute to strengthening Physical Therapy education at UFMG, expanding public access to health services, and guiding similar initiatives in other public higher education institutions.