Health Promotion: social representations of students of the undergraduate courses in health

This article discusses the social representations on health promotion for students of the health area undergraduate courses of a Public University. It has as a reference the more modern concept of health promotion, based on the model that suggests that the union of individual efforts, collective and institutional action to intervene in the socio-health reality, to resolve problems of health of the population and improve the quality of life. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with students of Pharmacy, Nutrition, Odontology, Medicine and Nursing. For data analysis, the method of content analysis was used. The representations of the students suggest a predominance of a concept centered on outdated models of health promotion, resulting in authoritarian and unidirectional prevention actions and educational practices. Even with the implementation of the curriculum reform process the influence of the evolution of the concept in expressions of students was not observed, showing the need to reevaluate the theoretical frameworks that support the training of new health professionals.