Training and research carried out by human resources in health, Latin America

Objective: It was decided to analyze the attendance to courses, congresses, the production of research and publications as an instrument to calibrate the continuing education of health personnel in divers Latin American countries. Material and methods: A descriptive observational study, based on a multicenter survey of health personnel from eight Latin American countries. They were asked about two subjects: the training they had done (attending national congresses, international conferences and short courses) and the research they had generated (original works and other publications, asking how many of them had been published). Results: The median attendance at national congresses was 3 in the whole of life (range: 0-400) and 1 during the last year (range: 0-23). At international congresses it was 0 in all the life (range: 0-40) and 0 during the last year (range: 0-15). A short courses was 2 in a lifetime (range: 0-500) and 0 during the last year (range: 0-80). As for the original works, the median of all life was 0 (range: 0-40) and the median of these publications was 0 (range: 0-15). Finally, the median of other lifetime research was 0 (range: 0-40) and of the publications of these was 0 (range: 0-18). Conclusion: It was found that the trainings received are very few in all their life and in the last year, the investigation is minimal, and much smaller publication. This is an expected finding but consistent with many reports, where it has been shown that self-training and research are insignificant.