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Education, with an emphasis on prison health, has acted as a policy inducing changes in work processes, which the Brazilian National Health System (SUS) has used, and which is present in permanent health education, which promotes health care for people deprived of liberty. This article aims to present an analysis of the impacts of the strategy of massive education on prison health in Brazil from the perspective of health professionals and other actors operating in the Brazilian prison system. The data used in the study come from a questionnaire consisting of 37 questions applied nationwide between March and June 2022. Responses were collected from students who completed the course “Health Care for People Deprived of Freedom” of the learning pathway “Prison System”, available in the Virtual Learning Environment of the Brazilian Health System (AVASUS). This course was offered nationally, whose adhesion (enrollment) occurred spontaneously, i.e., the course was not a mandatory. The data collected allowed us to analyze the impacts of massive education on prison health. The study also shows that the search for the course is made by several areas of knowledge, with a higher incidence in the health area, but also in other areas, such as humanities, which also work directly with the guarantee of the rights of people deprived of liberty, which are professionals in the areas of social work, psychology, and education. The analysis based on the data suggests that the massive education mediated by technology through the courses of the learning pathway, besides disseminating knowledge–following the action plan of the 2030 Agenda of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)–, are an effective tool to promote resilience in response to prison health and care demands of people deprived of liberty.

IntroductionBrazil has one of the largest prison populations globally, with over 682,000 imprisoned people. Prison health is a public health emergency as it presents increasingly aggravating disease rates, mainly sexually transmitted infections (STI). And this problem already affects both developed and developing nations. Therefore, when thinking about intervention strategies to improve this scenario in Brazil, the course “Health Care for People Deprived of Freedom” (ASPPL), aimed at prison health, was developed. This course was implemented in the Virtual Learning Environment of the Brazilian Health System (AVASUS). Given this context, this study analyzed the aspects associated with massive training through technological mediation and its impacts on prison health.MethodsThis cross-sectional study analyzed data from 8,118 ASPPL course participants. The data analyzed were collected from six sources, namely: (i) AVASUS, (ii) National Registry of Health Care Facilities (CNES), (iii) Brazilian Occupational Classification (CBO), (iv) National Prison Department (DEPEN); (v) Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE); and the (iv) Brazilian Ministry of Health (MoH), through the Outpatient Information System of the Brazilian National Health System (SIA/SUS). A data processing pipeline was conducted using Python 3.8.9.ResultsThe ASPPL course had 8,118 participants distributed across the five Brazilian regions. The analysis of course evaluation by participants who completed it shows that 5,190 (63.93%) reported a significant level of satisfaction (arithmetic mean = 4.9, median = 5, and standard deviation = 0.35). The analysis revealed that 3,272 participants (40.31%) are health workers operating in distinct levels of care. The prison system epidemiological data shows an increase in syphilis diagnosis in correctional facilities.ConclusionsThe course enabled the development of a massive training model for various health professionals at all care levels and regions of Brazil. This is particularly important in a country with a continental size and a large health workforce like Brazil. As a result, social and prison health impacts were observed.

The Virtual Learning Environment of the Brazilian Health System (AVASUS) is a free and open distance education platform of the Ministry of Health (MS). AVASUS is a scalable virtual learning environment that has surpassed 800,000 users, 2 million enrollments, and 310 courses in its catalog. The objective of this paper was to assess the impacts of the educational offerings on health services and AVASUS course participants' professional practice. This study analyzed data from AVASUS, the Brazilian National Registry of Health Care Facilities (CNES), the Brazilian Occupational Classification (CBO), and a questionnaire applied to 720-course participants from five regions of Brazil. After acquiring and extracting data, computational methods were used for the evaluation process. Only the responses of 462 participants were considered for data analysis, as they had a formal link to CNES. The results showed that respondents recommended 76.2% of AVASUS courses to peers. Accordingly, the quality of educational offerings motivated 81.3% of such recommendations. In addition, 75.6% of course participants who answered the questionnaire also indicated that AVASUS course contents contribute to enhancing existing health services in the health facilities where they work. Finally, 24.6% of all responses mentioned that courses available in AVASUS were essential in offering new health services in such facilities.