MEDICAL
SCHOOLS
Medical Education
process by which individuals acquire and maintain the skills necessary for the
effective practice of medicine. To train as a conventional doctor in the Western world a person needs
to have achieved a good level of understanding in the sciences (for example,
physics, chemistry, biology), either at high school or at college. Medical
schools are usually part of a university (although not all universities have
medical schools) and they offer only a limited number of training places in any
one year. This results in fierce competition for places, with only the best
students being admitted.
Asclepian, the first medicine school in the ancient times
Gate of an
asclepian in
Most medical schools offer a
training course of between three and six years in duration. The curriculum is
traditionally divided into two parts: a preclinical course in which the basic
science of how the human body works is studied; and a clinical course in which
the student is introduced to actual patient care in a hospital. The former is
usually taught in science departments at the university and the latter at a
hospital affiliated with the university.
The preclinical course involves such
areas of study as the gross and microscopic appearance and connections of the
human body (anatomy), the organization and basic functions of different types
of human cell (cell biology), the function and underlying biochemical processes
of parts of human cells (biochemistry), the integrated functions of tissues,
organs, and body fluids (physiology), the principal actions, distribution, and
elimination of drugs in the body (pharmacology), the general principles
underlying disease processes and such disease-related micro-organisms as
viruses, bacteria, and parasites (pathology), the defense mechanisms of the
body (immunology) and the structure and function of genetic material in living
and infected cells (genetics).
The clinical part of the course
involves medical students working with experienced doctors in general practice
and hospitals to learn family practice and general medicine, and such
specialized areas of health care as surgery (removal, reconnection, or
transplantation of parts of the body), obstetrics (pregnancy and childbirth), pediatrics
(diagnosis and treatment of childhood complaints), gynecology (diagnosis and
treatment of ailments of the reproductive system), geriatrics (diagnosis and
treatment of ailments suffered by elderly people), and psychiatry (diagnosis
and treatment of mental ill-health). During this time, medical students observe
and learn from doctors working with patients on the wards and in specialist
clinics, and gradually, under their supervision, become involved directly in
the provision of health care (for example, diagnosis and administration of
therapy).
Students have to pass examinations
in all of these different aspects of the course, which take to form of written,
practical, and oral tests. Upon graduating, they received a Doctor of Medicine
(MD), Bachelor of Medicine (BM) or an equivalent degree. New doctors swear the Hippocratic
Oath (or an equivalent professional statement) to adhere at all times to high
standards of medical practice and ethics and to protect the right of every
patient to life dignity and confidentiality.
It is usual for “junior” doctors to
serve at least one year as an “intern” or “house officer” and to have
responsibility for both diagnosing and treating patients in hospital. At this
point they choose to move away to a new hospital. Such a post, however, is
considered to be an extension of their training with overall responsibility for
their work resting with the senior colleagues supervising their work. In most
countries, “junior” doctors often complain that they work excessively long hours
for relatively poor pay (that is, relative to other professionals after several
years of training).
During his or her time as a junior
doctor an individual must decide whether to work in general or in a specialist
branch of medicine. If the latter the doctor applies to work with a particular
specialist and his or her team and once accepted embarks upon a training course
which lasts for several years; the training being obtained largely by the
experience of working with other more experienced doctors in the group. During
this time he or she is called “registrar” or “intern” and the training
culminates in both written and oral exams set by an official body in that. If
successful, the doctor is awarded “membership” of the college.
It is important that doctors keep up
with medical progress (the results of medical research concerning new forms of
diagnosis and treatment). Most often this takes the form of reading medical
journals and books, attending conferences, and discussing medical matters with
other specialists in the same or different fields. More recently, doctors have
been able to communicate with one another and receive the latest medical
information using the Internet (often referred to as the “information
superhighway”), which can link computers used by doctors in different hospitals
and/or general practices around the world.
Some doctors especially those in
general practice, choose to incorporate such unorthodox medical techniques as acupuncture
or reflexology into their medical practice and offer these to their patients,
where appropriate, usually in parallel with more conventional treatments; these
are seldom offered as an alternative to conventional Western medicine. So
popular are some of these unorthodox methods that some medical schools are now
offering training courses in these topics for both trainee and postgraduate doctors.
The university one of the oldest and
most famous in
The founder of
The world famous physician Joseph Skoda Karl Freiherr v. Rokitansky and Theodor Billroth reformed the
