The Programs and Context of Medical Education in Argentina

Abstract

There are 29 medical schools in Argentina (this number has increased rapidly in the last decade) offering a 6-year curriculum that usually consists of 3 years of basic science, 2 years of clinical sciences, and one internship year. Annually, 5,000 physicians graduate from these programs. Admission requirements vary depending on each university's policy. Some do not have entry requirements; others require a course, usually on the basics of mathematics, biology, chemistry or physics, and some introduction to social and humanistic studies. Each year, there are approximately 12,000 first-year medical students attending the 29 schools, which suffer a high dropout rate during the first years because of vocational problems or inability to adapt to university life. Some schools have massive classes (over 2,000 students), which makes it difficult for the schools to perfect their teaching. The number of full-time faculty members is low, and some of them have appointments at more than one medical school. Residency programs offer an insufficient number of places, and fewer than 50% of the graduates can obtain a residency position because of strict admission requirements. Coordination between the Ministry of Health, representing the health care system, and the Ministry of Education, representing the medical education system, needs to be improved. Despite the problems of medical education in Argentina, the movement to improve the education of health care workers is growing. The author offers two recommendations to help accomplish this goal.

Factors associated with dropout in medical education: a literature review

“…S1) 6–42 and the remaining 32 were excluded. Of these 32 studies, 17 were excluded for using either unwanted outcomes or outcomes defined in such a way that dropout was typically contaminated by delay in study 43–59 . Seven studies were excluded for proving irrelevant to our research question on closer inspection, 60–66 two for representing duplicate publications, 67,68 three for representing non‐primary studies, 69–71 two for examining irrelevant populations, 72,73 and one for being unpublished 74 .…”

Validación transcultural del Cuestionario de Enseñanza Clínica de Maastricht

“…Respecto a los DC evaluados y sus características, tanto de Holanda como de la Argentina, cumplieron tareas clínicas y docentes similares, y, en ambos casos, el nivel de formación docente era heterogéneo. 27 El sesgo de muestreo también puede aparecer por un uso inadecuado del instrumento. 28 Mediante una prueba piloto en un grupo de residentes, se comprobó que todos los ítems se consideraban fáciles de entender y el proceso de respuesta era simple.…”

Curricular transformations in medical school: an exploration of the promotion of change in Brazil

“…Important changes were observed after the schools' curricular revisions, such as the embracing of active teaching and learning methodologies and increases in the number and possibilities of practice scenarios, which always took into consideration the peculiarities of the Brazilian health system . Similar methods have been adopted by schools in other countries …”

“…15,16 Similar methods have been adopted by schools in other countries. 1,[17][18][19] The production of knowledge associated with societal needs was defined as the basis of the curricular reforms introduced by the medical schools. Interestingly, however, the results show this to be the weakest link in the entire programme, which means that more specific actions are required to achieve this goal.…”