Innovative tracks at established institutions for the education of health personnel : An experimental approach to change relevant to health need

For a long time, the major emphasis of many programmes concerned with the education and training of health personnel has been on an increase in quantity. Although this drive for quantity has been successful, and in some cases even too successful leading to overproduction of certain categories of health personnel, the relevance of the trained personnel to the health needs and demands of the population has often been far from satisfactory. There are a few new training institutions where there is a clearly demonstrated concern with the relevance of the training programme, and where it is well understood that "one is excellent only if one is relevant" and that "the highest standard in medical education for any country is that which is most responsive to local need". Established institutions with conventional training programmes seem to find it difficult to move away from the well-known hospital-based, exclusively patient-oriented pattern. The notable exceptions are those institutions, a mere handful, that decided to allow the development of an additional, alternative programme. These"innovative tracks" often serve as a community-oriented "option" within the framework of an otherwise traditional institution. These "tracks" thus represent the hope for change for these older, established institutions in the direction of relevance to the WHO goal of health for all by the year 2000. The object of this book, which summarizes the discussions at a meeting held in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in October 1986, is to make these "innovative tracks" programmes .....