Family and Community Medicine Residency Programs for training the health workforce: what do municipal health managers think?

The training, recruitment and retention of primary care professionals is a constant challenge in Brazil. The recent expansion of family and community medicine residency programs in the country coexists with gaps in the literature on the effects of this process. This article explores municipal health managers' understanding of these programs and the role they play in professional training and improving the quality of health care. We conducted a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the responses to questionnaires answered by 48 health managers working in municipal health services affiliated to residency programs. A descriptive statistical analysis of the quantitative data was performed and the qualitative data were analyzed using thematic analysis. The findings show that efforts were made to incorporate family and community doctors into the health care network and that managers recognized the potential residency program have to improve the quality of care and enhance professional training. Weaknesses were found in actions to improve infrastructure and facilities and the organization of the services affiliated to the programs. This study highlights the potential of residency programs for addressing longstanding problems in primary health care in Brazil when combined with actions to strengthen services, human resources and the programs.