Abstract:
Based on the belief that the advantage of integrating medical students into the community begins in their initial undergraduate course, we designed a special medical education project that was conducted from 1998 to 2000. The objectives were to encourage undergraduate students to acquire direct experience with the medical profession, working with people's problems and needs, and to stimulate them to recognize the physician's social and political obligations and promote integration between school and work. The project was developed in a public clinic where the students spent four hours a week involved in the unit's general activities, plus two hours of focused study. Students demonstrated considerable interest in these activities. They discussed how the experience in the clinic was essential for their knowledge of both the medical profession and the municipal public health service, and how this information facilitated their understanding of subsequent course work. We concluded that basic health activities should be a priority in the medical school curriculum, without neglecting the development of other basic scientific and theoretical activities.
Key-words:
Educacion, Medical; Health services; Integration of teaching and health care