Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Medical schools should teach, not make money

By Lukoye Atwoli
Sunday Nation 01 June 2014
Recent demonstrations by medical students at one of our local universities exposed just the tip of the iceberg as far as problems in the training of medical personnel are concerned. The students were complaining about lack of facilities and staff to teach critical courses in their curriculum. This shouldn’t surprise anybody knowledgeable about medical education in this country.
Many universities treat medical education as a cash cow rather than as an avenue for increasing the number of critical personnel in the health sector. Several times in the past, medical students have been admitted to “medical schools” only to find themselves idling on campus without teachers or material to learn.
The Medical Practitioners and Dentists’ Board, being responsible for regulating medical training in the country, has tough questions to answer in this regard unless they can demonstrate the problematic institutions are duplicitous in their dealings with the Board.
The Board is certainly aware of the shortage of doctors in this country, and any move to rectify this situation is definitely laudable. Unfortunately this shortage also affects availability of experts to train medical students in the various areas of medicine. Especially in the basic sciences that form the bedrock of medical training, there is an acute shortage of lecturers even in the more established medical schools.
This being the case, it is surprising that there is no sustained policy to focus on training of experts in these fields in order to ensure all medical schools are sufficiently served. The result is that in some cases the same individual is involved in teaching medical students at several universities, obviously to the detriment of quality teaching and all but obliterating any opportunities for research. With the proliferation of medical schools in all corners of this country this situation is sure to worsen.
CAREER PROGRESSION
Further complicating the issue is the involvement of universities in the training of certain paramedical cadres without clear career progression. For a long time in this country, the Kenya Medical Training College has been training a highly qualified cadre of paramedical personnel known as clinical officers.
These officers have helped ensure Kenyans in the most remote parts of the country have access to a clinician who can diagnose and manage common medical conditions. Beginning training at diploma level, they were able to further their training at higher diploma level specialising in one field of medical practice. Those that were so inclined could later join medical school and train to become doctors.
Some of our universities jumped into the fray and initiated the training of this cadre as they prepared medical curricula for future training of doctors. After a while, some bright chaps at these universities came up with the idea that they ought to train the same cadre at degree level, without a thought as to how they would fit in the highly regimented medical fraternity.
Many of the students enrolled in the courses believing they were being trained to become doctors. Unfortunately many of their dreams are ending in frustration when they find that many institutions do not know how to deploy them when they apply for jobs.
It is time we held candid discussions about the direction of medical training in this country because, after all, the arguments and tantrums, the lives and livelihoods of Kenyans are at stake.
Dr Atwoli is a consultant psychiatrist and senior lecturer at Moi University’s School of Medicine. lukoye@gmail.com

6 comments:

  1. Doctors and maney together is problen in our time not only in Kenia.Firstly, doctors should be in every developed country, secondly, they should get education and practice (!!!), thirdly, be heros. Should be like this doctor https://tuko.co.ke/145394-baby-born-brain-outside-head-doctors-amazing.html

    ReplyDelete
  2. https://tuko.co.ke/145394-baby-born-brain-outside-head-doctors-amazing.html

    ReplyDelete
  3. It's a shame that young people who want to get a quality education can not achieve this due to negligence prepodavateley.Takoy bespridel happening not only in hospitals but also in mainstream schools https://tuko.co.ke/163984-action-taken-lenana-school-students-refused-sit-mock-exam.html

    ReplyDelete
  4. Also recently, the Ministry of education in Kenya has released a new long-term dates for schools and colleges for 2017 https://tuko.co.ke/219907-2017-term-dates-schools-colleges-shocked-parents.html

    ReplyDelete
  5. As rightly noticed! - indeed Hippocrates said, do no harm! And right after harmful to health sometimes , only to earn more money as well, and the Ministry of health, which quite clearly broke the corruption scandal: Moi advises Kenyans to vote out Uhuruto over corruption https://tuko.co.ke/220491-moi-tells-kenyans-uhuru-ruto-ksh-5-billion-health-scandal.html - Such things should not be, especially in the field dearest to man - his own health, isn't it?

    ReplyDelete
  6. I'm 15 years old. I was born with HIV my mother passed away because of the HIV infection And I regret why i never met Dr Itua he could have cured my mum for me because as a single mother it was very hard for my mother I came across Dr itua healing words online about how he cure different disease in different races diseases like HIV/Aids Herpes Copd Diabetes Hepatitis even Cancer I was so excited but frighten at same time because I haven't come across such thing article online then I contacted Dr Itua on Mail drituaherbalcenter@gmail.com I also chat with him on what's app +2348149277967 he tells me how it works then I tell him I want to proceed I paid him so swiftly Colorado post office I receive my herbal medicine within 4/5 working days he gave me guild lines to follow and here am I living healthy again can imagine how god use men to manifest his works am I writing in all articles online to spread the god work of Dr Itua Herbal Medicine Yes can ask me anything about this on my twitter @ericamilli or text 7205992850.He's a Great Man.

    ReplyDelete

Say something about this post!

Google