Integrative and complementary practices: institutionalization, perspectives and challenges for training

The National Policy for Integrative and Complementary Practices of the Brazilian Unified Health System is a set of norms and guidelines created to implement such practices. The study aimed to analyze the trajectory of this policy through official documents, focusing on the challenges related to health training and the impact of the hegemony of the biomedical model on the implementation of such practices. The study used descriptive documentary analysis and discursive textual analysis as data collection tools. Four documents were analyzed. The results showed that the most recent document details the trajectory of professional experiences with the practices, justifying the officialization of the policy. We identified the existence of a field of knowledge about practices before the regulation of the policy. However, the approach to teaching was considered incipient. The other documents analyzed presented only a description of the practices included in the policy. Encompassing the cultural dimension in teaching integrative and complementary practices can contribute to a diversified view of such practices in the Unified Health System, in order to break away from the scientific exclusivity of the biomedical model.

Keywords:
national policy for integrative and complementary practices; teaching; culture; biomedical model