FP-222
Learning from Community Health Workers: Developing Traditional and Alternative Health Services in Rural Philippines
Lester Sam A Geroy1, Grace Fe Buquiran2
1. World Health Organization, Philippines 2. University of the Philippines Open University, Philippines
Background: Community health workers (CHWs) specialized on alternative and traditional health care based in a rural area conducted an educational exposure in traditional wellness centers based in an urban metropolis. This study discusses their insights for the improvement of the management and organization of their project in order to expand alternative and traditional health care within their locality.
Methodology: Planning, preparation and educational exposure were performed by the CHWs themselves within the oversight of midwife and physician advisers. Triangulation of results from open-ended questionnaires and focus group discussion were conducted after to process experiences and derive generalizations and recommendations.
Results and Discussion: Participants discussed their roles, enhancing factors, challenges, and experiences in the planning, preparation and exposure proper. CHWs learned organizational and management principles, alternative health care benefits and techniques, and the advantages of continued education. Participants developed teamwork, interest in learning, perseverance, alternative health care techniques, and finance
management skills among others.
Recommendations: CHWs concluded that expansion and sustainability of local alternative and traditional health care services require organizational and behavioral modifications and improvement of products and services. Continued education, research, promotion of product and services, sufficient resources, proper human resource recruitment, integration of the services within the target community, and political support are also crucial.
FP-223
Theory and Practice of Health Promoting School: A Case Study of an Elementary School in Hsin Chu City of Taiwan
Yu-Zhen Niu1, Chieh-Hsing Liu2, Bi-Xia Lin3, Yun-Ting Zhu3, Shu-Hua Zhang3
1. National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan 2. National Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan 3. Ming Fu Primary School, Taiwan
This paper attempted to describe the role of a main advocate of health promoting school (HPS) and portray the overall health promoting school promotion progress on how students and teachers cooperately participated in HPS advocation in a school-based setting. The procedure not only documented how health promoting committee members discussed and decided the topics, course
planning, and activities, but also described the progress of the members cooperating with employees of student affairs, students, and numerous volunteering subject teachers. During program execution, the members discussed the problems encountered and efforts put into overcoming the problems through continuous
self-reflection. They also attempted to use the progress of this case study to assist HPS practitioners during their actual promotion.
FP-224
The Social Contract of Medical Professionals
Duujian Tsai1, Chiung-Hsuan Chiu1, Chung-Jen Wei2, Linda Gail Arrigo1
1. Taipei Medical University, Taiwan 2. Fu Jen University, Taiwan
Purpose: The contract with society that medical professionals assume is the foundation that allows successful realization of professionalism. Though devotion to the profession has recently been more difficult for medical educators to inculcate in their students, in both global and local contexts, it is evident that tremendous efforts in curriculum reform are underway. Along this line, assessment of students’ actualization of various obligations related to
professionalism in the medical arena is important. This study therefore sets off to observe how medical students perceive their obligation to patients, society, organized medicine, and themselves, by the means of focus groups. Design: Focus group interviews with four groups, 33 in total, senior medical students from five universities. Grounded theory is used as a guideline to code and formulate key constructs related to students’ understandings of physicians’ implicit contract with society. Comparative analysis with current literature on medical professionalism is finally applied.
Results: The results show that the interviewees clearly recognize their obligation to patients, including medical competence and skills and empathy. Their obligation to organized medicine, including participation and work for improvement, is also addressed. Their obligation to society in general is less evident.
Discussion: This study addresses the professional contract with society from the perspective of medical students. The significant disparity found between students’ narratives and the literature on professionalism implies the social contract should be addressed in the future mission of medical education reform in Taiwan. To follow up, a subsequent quantitative survey with cohort study design is suggested.
FP-225
Historical and Epidemiological Study of Japanese Life Span
Hisashi Fujita
Niigata College of Nursing, Japan
