VER-SUS Potiguar Experience: An immersion into the reality of the Unified Health System

Abstract

The project Experiences and Internships in the Reality of the Unified Health System – VER-SUS Potiguar: Health Care Networks allows university students from different health areas and representatives of social movements to experience the Unified Health System of Brazil beyond the hospital-centric model. This allows the recognition of the potentialities and weaknesses of this health model in the territory, understanding in a practical way the formation and functioning of the Health Care Networks. This work aims to describe in a critical-reflective way the experience as facilitators of the VER-SUS Potiguar Project: Health Care Networks in the city of Lagoa Nova - Rio Grande do Norte. This is a descriptive study, of the experience report type, related to the experience of facilitators of the VER-SUS Potiguar project in the city of Lagoa Nova/RN. The facilitators had the opportunity to contribute to the students' understanding of how health devices work, in addition to those that promote health, and regarding the reality of populations with greater social vulnerabilities and how they access health services. By providing a link between the understanding of these devices and the students, the project facilitators were immersed in the reality of the functions and understanding of the city's SUS and how it impacts the population's health-disease process, as well as fostering critical-reflective thinking among the students who participated in VER-SUS Potiguar.