REALISM IN THE PREPARATION OF HEALTH WORKERS
| Autor: | James L. Troupin |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 1964 |
| Předmět: |
medicine.medical_specialty
business.industry Compromise media_common.quotation_subject Public health Health Personnel General Medicine World population Articles Public relations Pessimism First class Education Nursing care Health Occupations Environmental health medicine Humans Sociology Element (criminal law) business Health policy media_common |
| Zdroj: | American journal of public health and the nation's health. 54 |
| ISSN: | 0002-9572 |
| Popis: | IN the practice of our profession we are constantly obliged to compromise between what needs to be done and what one would like to do. Invariably, we must settle for what we may do, and it is in this sense that the termrealism-is used in this discussion. One of these two extremes, what we should like to do, is related to our principal topic-namely, the preparation of health workers. We should, of course, like to see every human being in the world have access to complete health services, including hospitals, public health services and environmental control, medical, dental, and nursing care, and all the other facilities and services which will help him toward "complete physical, mental, and social well being." This sounds like an ideal solution, and perhaps those who stand at that end of the scale may reasonably be called idealists. At the opposite extreme, what needs to be done, we are faced with situations with which we are all familiar. Those who have seen the living conditions and disease problems of so many of our fellow men need no reminder that some people have not yet had access to a basic minimum of care. What needs to be done is clear enough, but any attempt to measure these needs in terms of the idealism already mentioned can only lead one to frustration and deep pessimism. A few calculations will illustrate the point. Using a ratio of one physician to 2,500, and a world population of three billion, a total of six million doctors would be needed. An estimated replacement figure for those who retire from practice each year would mean about 200,000 medical graduates annually; an adequate figure if we had six million doctors-distributed more or less uniformly. But there are fewer than three million doctors, badly distributed from a world-wide viewpoint, so that for the next 30 years we should need not 200,000 graduates each year, but closer to half a million. If each medical school were to produce 200 annually on an average, which they do not, the world would need 2,500 medical schools or more than triple the number now in existence. Instead of belaboring this point further, we must recognize one element which exerts its influence beyond any of man's efforts to halt its grim marchtime! From the moment of conception of a medical school until its first class is graduated, about ten years elapse. Add this to the estimated time for overtaking the backlog, and the magnitude |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
| Externí odkaz: |
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