Teaching of Public Health and Preventative Medicine

Coincidently with the changes which are being made in the schedule of instruction in the clinical departments at Stanford University Medical School, instruction in the department of public health and preventative medicine is being reorganized to emphasize more strongly the principles of public health and preventive medicine in the routine work of the hospital wards and outpatient clinics. Thus far, attention has been confined to arrangements for the instruction of undergraduate medical students and, although graduate nurses who are specializing in public health work are permitted to attend some of the exercises, no facilities have been provided for the training of graduate students. A course of forty lectures on the principles of public health and preventive medicine is given in the fifth and sixth quarters, at the same time as the introductory courses in clinical medicine and surgery, in order that by the time the student commences his practical clinical work in the wards in the seventh quarter he is prepared to recognize the broader community and preventive medicine problems involved in each clinical problem which comes under his observation. Moreover, during the seventh quarter instruction is given in the problems of industrial medicine and surgery so that early in his clinical courses the student is prepared to recognize the importance of industrial conditions in the causation of disease and disability. Third year students who are assigned to ward service in the hospitals are encouraged to give consideration to these problems by requiring detailed investigation of the social condition, occupation and general environment of each patient in connection with the medical history, and by having the essential points emphasized by the clinical instructor during the bedside discussions of each patient. Fourth year students in the outpatient department are required to familiarize themselves with the home and occupational environment of their patients and to take an active part in such existing social organizations as the prenatal clinic, the postpartum clinic, the well-baby clinic, the cancer clinic and the follow-up services for tuberculosis and venereal diseases. They are also required to become proficient in vaccination, making tuberculin, Shick and Dick tests, toxin-antitoxin immunization, serum therapy, etc. All of this must be necessarily be directly supervised by the clinical departments and all these departments are actively cooperating. As a beginning, certain instructors in each department are paying particular attention to instruction along these lines. In addition to the work in the hospitals and dispensary, a series of laboratory exercises, demonstrations and conferences in the eighth quarter covers the general methods of laboratory diagnosis and of prophylactic procedures in communicable diseases, serum and vaccine therapy, epidemiology, etc. Furthermore, each student is required to make a sanitary survey of a community, or, in special instances, an epidemiological study before the beginning of the fourth year. Instruction in tropical medicine is also included in this department. Owing to our geographical location and the close shipping relationships with the Orient and with Central and South America, our dispensary is visited by many patients who are suffering from tropical diseases. Some of these are admitted to hospital where they are studied by third year students, and the others are assigned to fourth year students in the outpatient department where there is opportunity for consulation with the instructor in tropical medicine. A laboratory course in parasitology is given in the seventh quarter and a course of lectures and conferences covering the general field of tropical medicine is offered in the fourth year. The entire course of instruction is designed to interest the student in the problems of public health and preventive medicine as early as possible in order that they may become accustomed to recognizing the broader community problems which go hand in hand with the care of the sick. The work is made as practical as possible and its importance is emphasized by the discussions of the clinical instructors in the routine care of their patients.

Récupéré en direct depuis OpenAlex et désinversé. Les résumés ne sont pas conservés dans cette base de données : les index inversés représentent 8,6 Go des 9,3 Go de texte de la base, et le serveur dispose de 13 Go libres.