Currently students should be prepared to face several and varied work environments besides issues demanding innovative approaches and resolution skills. Then higher education must implement new teaching strategies aimed beyond a formal content learning. This paper shows the Problem-Based Learning (PBL) as an approach that promotes an active learning for a comprehensive education of students in line with an ideal professional profile and target learning objectives, so we reviewed their source, development and application to teach health sciences, giving as a result some reflections for implementation in the classroom, and a final conclusion says it is a useful methodology to train professionals from various fields.