Knowledge Integration and Its Role in the Training of Health Professionals: The Cabo Verde Experience

New Trends In Health Conceptualization

In recent times, the gap between the professional status quo and society's aspirations has deepened. And it is through this gap that the traditional concept of health began to be called into question. This has occurred at least since the famous definition of the World Health Organization (WHO) inserted in its Constitution of 1946, which tells us that health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not just the simple absence of illnesses. The positive or salutogenesis concept proposed by Aaron Antonovsky (Antonovsky, 1996) was then enshrined. This concept had the advantage of being more comprehensive, as it included in its focus social and personal resources, as well as physical capabilities (Becker CM, 2010). The trigger for this change was and has been the growing need to go beyond the limits of a health approach centered on combating disease and on clinical and hospital medicine with a focus on the individual. Since then, the objective has become that of overcoming a type of health action resulting from the mere application of the concept of pathogenesis, based on the study and fight against the development of the disease. A vision now seen as restrictive, minimalist, and reactive. This way of thinking and acting started to be affronted and contested, in the name of a new approach, characterized by comprehensiveness. We would say that the traditional concept is today impelled and challenged to include new topics, such as the interdependence between human, animal and environmental health, as well as the imperative of “health for all”, seen not only as a demand for political and ethical forum, but equally as the only way to ensure effectiveness and sustainability of health policies.