Reflections on the integrated approach for Pharmacology II: its repercussion in the students' formation
COMMUNICATION

 

Reflections on the integrated approach for Pharmacology II: its repercussion in the students' formation

 

Reflexiones sobre el enfoque integrado de Farmacología II: su repercusión en la formación de estudiantes

 

 

Lázara Méndez Gálvez,1 Lilia Pupo Artiles,2 Juan Manuel Artiles Sánchez3

1 Medical Doctor. Master of Science. Asociate Profesor. Teaching Clinic "Chiqui Gómez Lubián". Santa Clara. Villa Clara. Cuba. E-mail: miguelin@hamc.vcl.sld.cu
2 Medical Doctor. Master of Science. Instructor Professor. Teaching Clinic "Chiqui Gómez Lubián". Santa Clara. Villa Clara. Cuba. E-mail: polichiqui@capiro.vcl.sld.cu
3 Medical Doctor. Master of Science. Instructor Professor. Teaching Clinic "Chiqui Gómez Lubián". Santa Clara. Villa Clara. Cuba. E-mail: polichiqui@capiro.vcl.sld.cu

 

 

ABSTRACT

To achieve its pertinence, the medical education should form the general practitioner as a well trained professional in the therapeutic abilities. The present work tries to define the meaning of integrated approach as well as to express its implications in the teaching learning process; it is intended to communicate about the consideration of the Pharmacology II subject that it is imparted in the third year of the Medicine career in regard to its assessment, so as to contribute to the level of performance according to the professional profile and to the acquisition of abilities to prescribe drugs. The current historical moment leads to transformations in the pedagogic conception; it implies new demands, bigger psycho-pedagogic training for the professor and the development of communicative abilities to organize the interaction with the students, with the objective of forming a competent professional.

MeSH: Education, medical, pharmacology/education, students, medical.

RESUMEN

Para lograr su pertinencia, la educación médica debe formar al médico general como un profesional bien entrenado en las habilidades de la terapéutica. El presente trabajo procura delimitar el significado de enfoque integrado y a su vez abordar sus implicaciones en el proceso enseñanza aprendizaje; se pretende comunicar acerca de la consideración de la asignatura Farmacología II que se imparte en tercer año de la carrera de Medicina en cuanto a su evaluación, como una forma de tributar al modo de actuación según el perfil profesional y a la adquisición de la habilidad de prescribir fármacos. El momento histórico actual conduce a transformaciones en la concepción pedagógica; ello implica nuevas exigencias, mayor capacitación psicopedagógica para el profesor y el desarrollo de habilidades comunicativas para organizar la interacción con los estudiantes, con el objetivo de formar un profesional integral.

DeCS: Educación médica, farmacología/educación, estudiantes de Medicina.

 

 

We are living a historical period of deep transformations; society and its own structures advance, and the higher education has a new vision on teaching in the XXI century, according to humanity's present and future necessities.

The influence of socio-historical conditions upon education is an unquestionable fact and the higher education should give answer to the social responsibility of forming comprehensive proficient professionals with the purpose of achieving its pertinence.1

Teaching maintains the principle of improvement, starting from a scientific direction and a new organization of the teaching learning process, in which the student's protagonist role is materialized in the assimilation of knowledge. So the teaching personnel have the challenge of carrying out deep educational transformations, guided to achieve adaptability, that pave the way to achieve a human sustainable development.2

The study plan of the third year Medicine students is characterized by the integration and the evolution of the university towards new teaching forms, keeping in mind the dynamic relationship among subjects, outlining interdisciplinary relations as a methodological principle.3,4

Pharmacology II is an eminently integrative subject, it uses as precedent contents those of the basic cycle and General Pharmacology, and it is imparted coordinately with Internal Medicine. Therefore, the student has knowledge of those subjects that the professor can take advantage for the best development in the different activities; in the same way they can also use the knowledge the students acquire in Internal Medicine and those of the in-service training.

The subject in question in the present communication is very wide and it studies all the aspects related with the concerning drugs involved in the process health-illness in the Primary and Secondary Health Cares. However, for the interest of the Medicine students and their future clinical practice, it has as essential purpose to favor that the future Medicine graduate makes a rational use of medications on scientific bases, and be able to self-upgrading as well as to educate patients against self-medication and the unnecessary use of drugs.5-7

General Practitioners are the corner stone of the Primary Health Cares, they should be well trained professionals able to make health team work in the community, they require abilities to make documents related to the medical care, for instance, the doctor-patient interview, to indicate and to interpret diagnostic procedures, apply techniques and pertinent diagnostic procedures and to keep in mind the surrounding psycho-social aspects to arrive to a bio-psycho-social diagnosis. That´s why it can be asked: will this be enough to achieve the patient's recovery even when a treatment regimen hasn´t been ordered?

In an analysis carried out by the professors that impart Pharmacology II in the Medicine Faculty of Villa Clara University of Medical Sciences, it was considered that the main difficulties are related with the place it occupies inside the study plan; because it is integrated with Internal Medicine and there is no final evaluation, though it loses rigor, since the biggest force relies upon the rector discipline and the space for therapy is only in partial evaluations which don't comprise the necessary knowledge to be mastered by the future medicine graduate, according to the authors' opinion.

In the university polyclinics, the facilitator professors of the subjects who also impart teaching in some of the rotations of the fourth and fifth years of the career and topics of the internship, notice that serious difficulties exist as for the election of first line treatment medications for common illnesses in the Primary Health cares as well as with the doses and forms of presentation of drugs, aspects which are not evaluated according to the program.

Many of the Medicine graduates immediately come out to fulfill missions as general practitioners in and out of Cuba wherever they are needed, others carry out intensive courses in different branches to fulfill the honorable task; for this reason the present work emphasizes about the importance of the Internal Medicine and Pharmacology II subjects in the process of the health professional's comprehensive formation that although it is indispensable and necessary to interrelate them, to apply a final exam as well as to include in the program the doses and presentation of the medications in the case of Pharmacology II. It is important to highlight that the evaluation is a regulating factor of learning and a basic ability for the self-preparedness of the student.6-8

The nature of the challenges that faces the medical education at present leads to think deeply over what should be made in a conscious way to be able to fulfill the social responsibility that the Cuban medical university has to form the proficient professional the health system needs.

 

BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES

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2. González Peña MV, Machado Durán MT. Extensión universitaria en la universalización de la Educación Superior: una mirada desde la pedagogía intercultural. Rev Hum Med [Internet]. 2011 [citado 15 Dic 2014];11(2):[aprox. 10 p.]. Disponible en: http://scielo.sld.cu/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1727-81202011000200004&lng=es&nrm=iso

3. Universidad de Ciencias Médicas de la Habana. Perfeccionamiento del Plan de Estudios. Carpeta Metodológica 3er año. Carrera Medicina. La Habana: Ciencias Médicas; 2010.

4. Fernández Sacasas JA. El principio rector de la educación médica cubana: un reconocimiento a la doctrina pedagógica planteada por el profesor Fidel Ilizástigui Dupuy. Educ Med Super [Internet]. 2013 [citado 15 Sept 2014];27(2):[aprox. 9 p.]. Disponible en: http://scielo.sld.cu/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0864-21412013000200011&lng=es&nrm=iso&tlng=es

5. Ramos Cedeño AM, López Guerra RL, García Núñez RD, Dueñas Pérez Y, Rodríguez Medina JD. Propuesta metodológica para los seminarios de actualización farmacoterapéutica. Medisur [Internet]. 2012 [citado 15 Sept 2014];10(2):[aprox. 8 p.]. Disponible en: http://medisur.sld.cu/index.php/medisur/article/view/2066/927

6. Morón Rodríguez FJ. Programa de la disciplina Farmacología. Ministerio de Salud Pública. Viceministerio de Docencia e Investigación. Carrera de Medicina. La Habana: Universidad de Ciencias Médicas; 2010.

7. Morón Rodríguez FJ. Programa de la asignatura Farmacología II (Clínica). Ministerio de Salud Pública. Viceministerio de Docencia e Investigación. Carrera de Medicina. La Habana: Universidad de Ciencias Médicas; 2010.

8. Milián Vázquez PM, López Rodríguez del Rey MM. El perfeccionamiento del proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje de la disciplina Farmacología en la formación del médico general: concepciones, retos y perspectivas. Medisur [Internet]. 2010 [citado 16 Nov 2014];8(6):[aprox. 9 p.]. Disponible en: http://medisur.sld.cu/index.php/medisur/article/view/1411/466

9. Rodríguez Hernández M, García González M, López Guerra RL, Pérez de Armas A, Rodríguez Ezcurdia R, Huguet Blanco Y. Estrategia de ajuste curricular con enfoque interdisciplinario para la Farmacología en Medicina. EDUMECENTRO [Internet]. 2009 [citado 16 Nov 2014];1(2):[aprox. 7 p.]. Disponible en: http://www.revedumecentro.sld.cu/index.php/edumc/article/view/34/73

10. López Guerra RL, Rodríguez Escurdia R, Ramos Cedeño A M, López Castellanos D, Casas Blanco JC, Medina Corzo B. Vinculación entre Farmacología II y Medicina Interna: dificultades y propuestas de perfeccionamiento. EDUMECENTRO [Internet]. 2009 [citado 15 Sep 2013];1(2):[aprox.7 p.].Disponible en: http://www.revedumecentro.sld.cu/index.php/edumc/article/view/34/73

 

 

Received: January, 26 2015.
Approved: April, 25 2015.

 

 

Lázara Méndez Gálvez. Teaching Clinic "Chiqui Gómez Lubián". Santa Clara. Villa Clara. Cuba. E-mail: miguelin@hamc.vcl.sld.cu

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