Development of interprofessional collaborative practices within undergraduate programs on healthcare: case study on the Family Health Alliance in Fortaleza (Ceará, Brazil)

The authors present the dynamics of mentoring work within the Family Health Alliance (FHA), an extension program that fosters interprofessional collaboration from a social learning perspective. The objective of this study was to describe and evaluate the program dynamics and their repercussions among the participants. The context, basis, objectives and organization of work situations for students from six different undergraduate programs on health sciences were analyzed by means of an exploratory development study conducted between January and December 2008. In the first phase, the participants were two teams consisting of one mentor and four students. In the second phase, there were three mentors and eight students. Thematic analysis on the students discourse emphasized their enthusiasm about the possibility of interprofessional collaboration as an instrument for change. The professional mentors were found to have developed a better understanding of their role and greater teaching awareness.