Public Health Is Essential: COVID-19’s Learnable Moment for Medical Education

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic, an unprecedented challenge for this generation of physicians and for the health care system, has reawakened calls to strengthen the United States’ public health systems. This global event is also a “learnable moment” for medical education—an opportunity to decisively incorporate public health, including public health systems, through the continuum of medical education. Although medical educators have made progress in integrating public health content into medical curricula, “public health” is not a phrase that is consistently used in curricular standards, and public health colleagues are not identified as unique and critical partners to improve and protect health. The COVID-19 crisis has demonstrated how a strong public health system is necessary to support the health of patients and populations, as well as the practice of medicine. Partnerships between medical and public health communities, through individual- and population-based interventions, can also more effectively combat more common threats to health, such as chronic diseases, health inequities, and substance abuse. To achieve a more effective medicine–public health relationship in practice, curricula across the continuum of medical education must include explanations of public health systems, the responsibilities of physicians to their local and state governmental public health agencies, and opportunities for collaboration. Medical education should also prepare physicians to advocate for public health policies, programs, and funding in order to improve and protect the health of their patients and communities. Pandemic COVID-19 demonstrates with laser focus that all physicians are part of public health systems and that public health content has a distinct and essential place across the continuum of medical education to prepare physicians to participate in, collaborate with, and advocate for public health systems.

Knowledge, Anxiety, Depression, and Sleep Quality Among Medical Staff in Central South Areas of China During the Break of COVID-19: Does the Level of Hospitals Make a Difference?

“…As a result, many medical workers were infected unexpectedly in the early stage of the epidemic, due to the insufficient public health literacy, especially in the basic-level hospitals ( 43 ). So it is important to expand the training of epidemic prevention talents and strengthen the teaching management of public health and preventive medicine, not only in medical school, but also in basic-level hospitals ( 44 ).…”

Knowledge, Attitudes, and Social Responsiveness Toward Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Among Chinese Medical Students—Thoughts on Medical Education

“…Medical colleges must set up schools of public health and strengthen the construction of schools of public health. Only in this way can a team of professionals who not only know public health but also know systematic epidemic prevention and emergency response be trained quickly (36). When it came to the attitudes and social responsiveness toward COVID-19, almost all participants chose to do a favor to the society as medical students or as doctors supposing they were at work, revealing great social cohesion and adaptability.…”

Evolving discourses of COVID-19 and implications for medical education: a critical discourse analysis

“…[13][14][15][16][17] Public health education improvement often follows threats to societal well-being at large 18 offering an important opportunity for reform. It is encouraging that current calls to increase public health education 19 are also motivated by efforts to mitigate the disproportionate effects of COVID-19 on vulnerable groups. Our project contributes to these efforts by documenting how need and vulnerability have been defined and operationalized in pandemic responses.…”