Family Health Postgraduate Program in the Brazilian northeast: repercussions in the professional exercise of postgraduates.

Brazilian postgraduate education has grown in recent years, but there is a knowledge gap regarding whether the course's planned educational objective is being achieved. We aimed to evaluate the contribution of the Postgraduate Program in Family Health for the postgraduates' professional practice. This is a cross-sectional study conducted with 225 postgraduates from October 2019 to July 2020. Data were collected by an online questionnaire containing different sociodemographic and educational variables and competencies developed in the master's degree program and identifying the domains of Health Promotion Competencies. Most of the participants were female (78.2%), nurses (58.2%), public servants (64%), and SUS workers (93.3%). Two hundred and twenty-two (98.7%) postgraduates' final paper theme built on a practice-related issue. A high mean score was observed for all competencies analyzed. The mean scores for domains in Health Promotion competencies were high. We can conclude that the postgraduate program has contributed satisfactorily to the formation of critical, active masters, with competencies developed and being realized in professional practice.