American College of Surgeons - Yearbook (Chicago, IL)

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6 American College of Surgeons foreground. In this connection, the following lines of activity are now under consideration, — 1. Since the whole problem of the training of specialists for the practice of surgery is the primary purpose of the College, the Regents propose at an early date to present a clear conception of the College to the undergraduate medical students of this con- tinent. The Regents, further, will ask each senior student of this group who has in mind to specialize in general surgery or any branch of surgery to register with the College. As these students, then, serve later as internes and as surgical assistants, they will be requested to report these facts to the College. The College, in turn, will systematically seek information as to the ability and character of such men ; and the information thus obtained becomes the basis of admission to Fellowship in the College. In addition to this procedure, the Regents will insist upon the proper keeping of case histories, and they will endeavor to stimulate in these men in training right ideals of medical practice. In this program they ask the active cooperation of the faculties of the medical schools and of all practitioners of medicine. 2. Inasmuch as proper training in surgery is inseparably involved with the conduct and efficiency of hospitals, the College will seek accurate data on all matters which relate to hospitals. From time to time it will publish studies upon hospital problems, the purpose being always to be helpful to the hospitals and to increase public confidence, where it is merited, in these institutions. These publications, further, will inform recent medical graduates as to where they may seek adequate general or special training in surgery. To be concrete, the College will deal with such problems as (a) the proper equipment for medical diagnosis, e.g., well equipped laboratories for chemical, pathological, and X-ray work; (b) the proper forms for case histories and the facilities for keeping these records; (c) the management and the curricula of the nurses training school; (d) the specialization essential in any well organized hospital. 3. The College will ask the faculties of medical schools to consider the advisability of conferring a supplementary degree of proficiency in general surgery and in the various specialties of surgery. 4. The College will issue readable monographs, educational in nature, to the press, to the general public, to hospital trustees,

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General Survey 5 At this date pledges to secure the first half million dollars amount to $452,000 and it is believed that the half million will be fully subscribed by December i, 19 15. The Regents will continue the original plan and in the near future expect that the million dollars will be all subscribed. In all the history of medicine probably no other incident tells of such definite loyalty and sincerity on the part of the profession for its advancement toward an unselfish ideal of service. By these subscriptions the Fellows have made genuine sacrifice. And the significant fact in this connection is that the entire impetus of the College springs from within its own membership. Neces- sarily that impetus implies reform. But there is a vast difference between reform preached at men and reform innate in the hearts of men which finds expression at their own initiative. Whatever impetus the College possesses, it originates among the surgeons themselves. It is not an extraneous force or an uplift movement. But rather, out of the widely divergent views on many subjects among the Fellows, the aims of the College rise as those time-tried aspirations which are inherently the basis of all that is valuable in the vocation of surgery. The purposes of the College are concerned directly with matters of character and of training, with the betterment of hospitals and of the teaching facilities of medical schools, with laws which relate to medical practice and privilege, and with an unselfish protection of the public from incompetent service; in a word, they embody those ideals which have stood the test of centuries. Upon these the Fellows are united. These are the ideals which each Fellow, single-handed, has endeavored to foster, and the expression of them to-day through the College comes as a sort of mass-con- sciousness of the whole body of Fellows. The splendid fact is that the Fellows have grasped in an instant the meaning of the College by a process of fusion and they have gladly made sacrifices for its success. PROGRAM OF ACTIVITY In all progress toward the fulfilment of the aims of the College the Regents appreciate that public approval is an essential force; and to acquire public approval they realize that straight thinking, time, patience, and endless effort are the telling factors. They reahze also that success lies only in the keeping of the fundamental principles for which the College was established clearly in the

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General Survey 7 and to the profession of medicine upon subjects of medical pro- cedure and the whole meaning of fitness to practice surgery. As one comes into wide acquaintance with the Fellows of the College and catches some fair notion of their earnestness, he sees the future of the organization not by means of logic. There is something more subtle and potent than argument. A determined optimism carries a momentum of its own. Without a logical process it seeks concrete expression; and, more than this, it really recreates circumstances through all shifts of weather or play of incident with a certainty not excelled by an utterly rational course. The Fellows of the College, in their widely scattered districts, fuse their consciousness of the organization with a splendid hope in their hearts to advance all that is important and valuable in the profession. This very attitude of mind is the first promise for the future of the College. It is a promise that admits of no defeat. It is a pledge of loyalty to medical patriotism which means loyalty to the public welfare exercised through intellectual sincerity and scientific accuracy. It means a safe-guard to the public, for it indicates where honest and adequate surgery may be found. REQUIREMENTS FOR ADMISSION TO FELLOWSHIP In submitting the following regulations , for admission to Fellowship by examination, the Board of Regents is conscious of its trust to the profession of medicine, first, that the regulations shall be administered without favor or prejudice; second, that the regulations shall be effective in their scrutiny. Further, the members of the Board feel that the regulations as outlined below mark a passing stage in the development of the College. It is probable in the near future that, in addition to these require- ments, the candidates for Fellowship will be asked to appear per- sonally before an examining board for further verification of fitness. 1. The candidate shall be a graduate of medicine, licensed to practice medicine in his respective state or province, or accepted as a medical officer in the service of his respective country. 2. To be ehgible for Fellowship without technical examina- tion the candidate shall be a graduate of a medical school approved by the American College of Surgeons. If the candidate ' s school of graduation is not accredited by the American College of Surgeons,