Notes on the second external evaluation of the training program in epidemiology applied to the services of brazil's national health system - EPISUS: potentialities of the qualitative-participatory approach

Abstract

This paper aims to present the authors' experience concerning the use of the qualitative-participatory approach in the second external evaluation of the Training Program in Epidemiology Applied to the Services of the National Health System - EPISUS. Completed in October 2007, in partnership with the Health Surveillance Department and the Center for Diseases Control (CDC / Atlanta), this evaluation incorporated the so-called fourth generation evaluation approach, in which the evaluators operate as mediators, thus replacing the foundations of the traditional approach used so far. To achieve this objective, it was necessary to carry out a conceptual delimitation referring to the concepts of evaluation, qualitative and participatory, which would guide the focused evaluative process. As for evaluation, its nature converges to the proposals of the fourth generation; therefore, it moved from a punitive character to a constructive one. The participatory dimension assumes different senses and, in the experiment reported here, this term is adopted in the decision sense, which attempts to reverse power asymmetries. The qualitative dimension is defined in the interface with subjectivity, referring to information that is not subject to quantification. This model revealed aspects that are often hidden in numbers and in abstract generalizations, enabling to focus on relationships that constitute the daily routine of the health programs and practices, and giving support to their transformation.