SUNY Downstate Medical Center - Iatros Yearbook (Brooklyn, NY)

Page 19 text:

A, ir ,im ,nr YV A V, f 1 - fillii iirltitlgiii fl 5:11 tributions to the medical sciences With the names of innumerable pupils whose minds were the materials on which they carried out their experiments.'7 Such a College as we have been describing must do all Within its power to formulate an integrated curriculum.. Good organization pre-supposes departmental autonomy-but care and patience must be exercised to break down the inter- departmental barriers-ior after all, each division of teaching is but a part of a grander scheme. Anatomy, for instance, must not be pictured by the students- or the faculty either, for that matter-as a course conducted for a given number of hours in a specific room and, upon its completion, never to be thought of again till ,tis time to study for the State Board examinations. Rather, into the period of its intensive study there should be interjected the physiologist to show its relation to body function, and the clinician to enliven it with his discussion of its applica- tion to the cause and cure of disease. And to the operating room or the bedside, the trained anatomist should be called to shed light onto the problems of diagnosis or therapy. lts laboratory doors should stand ever ajar so that later on the stu- dent can enter for further and leisured study. And what is true for anatomy is of at least equal importance for the other sub-clinical sciences, and of even greater application to the so-called medical specialties. For instance, the opthahnologist should perform the bulk of his undergraduate instruction in the general medical clinic or on the medical Wards Where his trained mind can be of greatest help in the diagnosis or management of systemic diseases which happen to present ocular manifestations. The clinician can reciprocate and the students Who participate in the discussion be benehted by such interchange of opinions. Close co-operation is particularly important between the major clinical divisions and two rapidly developing branches of medical education, namely, preventive medicine and psychiatry. Sickness shall ever be with us but the emphasis of mod- ern medicine is definitely toward that ideal which has long been accredited to the ancient Chinese-prevention of disease. It is essential that this phase of instruc- tion be kept ever before the student. The man trained to think of community health in its broad aspects should have access to the wards and clinics Where his point of view regarding the etiology of disease as exemplified in the hygiene and habits of the individual patient can fortify the opinions of the clinician-in-charge. Field visits to great civic centers where groups of babies are being kept Well, or to in- dustrial centers Where occupational diseases are being held in check, may help to orient the undergraduate to his social obligations. And hnally, regular health ex- aminations of all the students and of faculty as Well should be made as a personal reminder of the importance of the prevention of disease. Normal psychology and the study of the neuroses require a very constant and continuous place in an ideal curriculum. Not only shall they be taught as educa- tional entities, but here again the general Wards and dispensaries should be open to the psychologist and the psychiatrist. To the staff of each of the major clinical departments it is advisable to add a man with this special interest so that the personalities of the physically sick can be studied and strengthened. The amateur in general surgery is a public menace-but no more so than the uninformed physician who meddles with that most intangible and precious asset of man -his 13 Fi . ,Il , Q , Y ., ' ' , f' Yilff' 7 'f Zi T ,fa

Page 18 text:

f-fr? gf if if 'A . , gym, I . rife. y,,vH'. ,J , 'U 1 f. L?:.1?EEfze if-.?g-'if s-QSEX, me -ores , ,, ' ,crm - -f -V Y-...-- --f - - -- 7 . 91,-rv Q, , 'Y ,Q Y fg, , gym-, Y,.-,.,, ll 3 jf w-JF if 'aprgula l '- .r fat l 'if 'v personality. Attempt should be made to cull out from the vast number of young men and women, who are constantly knocking at the gates of our medical schools, those who show a true calling for the profession -who really are planning to consecrate their lives to it. In the recent past, too many have either drifted into the study of medicine, or have been pushed into it because of some supposed social advantage, or have been allured into it in hopes of personal fame or financial reward. There is need as never before for earnest and devoted and self-efifacing service in the field of medi- cine. For, as Stephen Paget says, Leif a doctor7s life may not be a divine vocation, then no life is a vocation, and nothing is divine. The Faculty of a School of Medicine dedicated to the training of practitioners of the profession differs from that which has as its aim the equally high goal of the furtherance of medical knowledge. It is essential that the great majority of men, charged with the instruction of those who are to carry on, be selected from the ranks of individuals who are engaged in practice. But simply because a man is a successful practitioner, it does not follow that he is qualified to have a posi- tion on a faculty of medicine! He needs to have an inquiring mind, to be a con- stant and a thoughtful student-Who, by his patient example, can 'Ge-du-catew or Ulead out his pupils into the fields of learning. The only instruction really worth- while is the stimulation of the younger man to learn for himself. The direction of progress can be obtained by sighting along the peaks of past achievement in medi- cal advance but the long, weary march has to be undertaken by each individual student. It is highly desirable that at least the head of each major department be a salaried teacher who is thereby freed from hnancial Worry. He should be encouraged to maintain a limited consulting and hospital service, but his educa- tional and administrative duties demand that his mind be kept clear of the worries which beset one whose oliice is overflowing and Whose list of house calls yet unmade is alarming. Finally, the teachers of Gtotalismi' must be men whose hearts and souls are keyed to the mental and spiritual needs of their patients. Let us not suppose that they can all be trained psychiatrists or religious philosophers but they should be aware of and alert to the important part which is played by these recently neglected phases of human living. Such a school should not be clinically top-heavy. It needs what Osler called the leavcn of science, Without which it would never rise above a doughy mass of sentimental mediocrity. From its laboratories there should flow a constant beam of vitalizing and directing light, to save it from chaos and fioundering. Man's body is biologic protoplasm, and the study of its reactions, normal and abnormal, must be kept ever alive. But the purposes of the science laboratories of such a College are not those of a medical research institute, where all effort is bent solely to the solving of scientific riddles, but rather to the illumination of the path immediately facing the student and the practitioner. The directors of these laboratories, and the younger men who wo1'k therein, need ample space and time for the pursuit of their wearying experimentation, for without these they cannot adequately perform their greatest function, namely, teaching. Instruction, rather than investigation, must be their raison dietre. As Zinsser has said, 'gin our own country there have been Osler, Welcll and some others Who have signed many of their important con- 12 , ' '..u ' Y . V ., Y YJ ,V - .1 in , , , , ,-.,Y, ,H 1 1 , . 1. ,,, .Y .Y it .1 .I x -5.2. 7

Page 20 text:

,Gill fi' lm' ,.. ..,, ,,-5 ,.. lf?'T3'-'H' 'F if p . fi' f if 'ff Tiff sf. Qi gl. 21 F221 li' -7-':9'f i 4-E'? 5- 'iiZ tf1Ei:i. 'f H X.r- if .1 , , Y V' YY g K X N-Iflxgk ,J ,, H ,-..v.lg- .V .rf JI '-5, 'N .,,1 A .5 H Y' apizp 1. soul. The medical student needs to have clearly shown him the types of personali- ties which can be helped by the general practitioner and those which need to be placed under the direction of trained and patient exponents of this advancing branch of medical practice. The duty of a medical school does not cease with the presentation of a diploma. If practicing physicians are to be kept abreast of the times, opportunities must be offered for the so-called refreshment courses. This post-graduate work consists mostly of instruction in the newer methods of diagnosis and management of types of disease. It is not intended that a few weeks of such study should prepare a man for a specialty. It is questionable whether he should even be awarded a certificate. The purpose of these courses is to lead him out of the deadly rut of routine, to rekindle his imagination, and so to enable him to practice sounder medicine. fln- formal work of this nature is not to be confused with the intensive graduate work for specialization, now conducted in many of our university schools of medicinej I am convinced that we in Brooklyn have an opportunity to train men and women for scientific care of their patients as individuals. We have not the facilities for university graduate work on a strictly academic basis. We leave to schools of that type their high task of widening the horizon of medical sciences and of stimulating youth to specialized endeavor through prolonged graduate study. There is need in society for both investigation and application, and we are well qualified by organization and heritage to do the latter. Seventy-four years ago, the Medical College of the Long Island College Hospi- tal Was dedicated to this purpose. Great have been its leaders of thought and many have been the students who there found stimulation. Time will permit mentioning only a few: Austin Flint, and Dalton, and Doremus, Skene and ,lewettg and, of fresh and helpful memory, Polakg Browning, Bartley and Vllestg McCorkle, Rush- more, Van Cott. Those and many others have given lavishly of their strength and their enthusiasm. Some have laid down their burdens yet live on in the lives of those they taught. Others have withdrawn apace from the worries and responsibili- ties of active instruction but are here today giving their benediction to this newer college. They and their un-named brothers carried the school and the hospital until such time as it became evident that other hospitals in Brooklyn and other teachers were necessary for the carrying out of the purposes of the College. Then, under the able guidance of our respected and beloved President Egbert and Dean Miller, the institution took on new raiment. It separated itself from its single hospital and has allied itself by strong bonds to several hospitals in the vicinity and to the local Medical Society. The University of the State of New York eighteen months ago approved of this change and granted a Charter to the Long Island College of Medicine, so, in the cold formality of legal procedure, this is a new institution but, in truth and in personality, it goes back for nearly three- quarters of a century. Mr. Chairman, l believe in the totality of the individual. l believe his needs must be served by the profession of Medicine. I believe in the education of men and women to that end. l believe that we have loyal trustees and friends who will support and an able Faculty which will conduct this education. l revere the memory of the great men of this College. l gratefully but humbly accept the honored position you have offered me and l pledge to it all that l have to give. 141 W- ,.-e.-3,:,4..a1..Qss.51m.,,c.n.-.p,M-:-n-4-..u-mm.n.e+u:.q 'Q 2 I V lj - -,.,,..... .. ..- Y ..:..,. --' Q-. 'V' . lA? -3- .--.Y --.---...h....w, M-.Fi-.-.-.-i.-.1 -' , lg .1 i . ., Y, , - - - x -A 1 Y 1 ......,, ...am W - - 1 , E: .ff yi - V- 1-if 1 R, f f 1 am- ,' 'TTY Qty