Global Doctors
The topic I chose to discuss was the training of doctors. More specifically if doctors should be trained globally or nationally. A national approach to the issue would be having doctors only train for the problems relevant in their country instead of learning about all global diseases and problems. A global approach to this issue would be having doctors study abroad to learn about other countries’ medical dilemmas, and be able to use that knowledge in the US or wherever they are located. I am leaning towards a global approach because I think it would be beneficial for future doctors to have extra tools in their belt and be taught differently than what is solely relevant in their area. Some may argue that we should take a national approach and have doctors become even more specialized by only training for problems that occur in their nation because this could possibly lead to higher success rates in the future with patients. However, a global approach is more effective because the results from traveling abroad will lead doctors to be exposed to different ways of thinking and be prepared for any type of issue that may present itself.
There are many benefits to globally approaching the topic of how doctors should be trained. Having doctors travel abroad to learn about different countries’ diseases and problems can lead to more diverse knowledge all around. This can be demonstrated by doctors learning how to not only deal with new medical problems, but also learn how to interact with patients from different cultural backgrounds. When traveling abroad they would be able to fully understand first-hand how different cultures interact with their patients vs their own nations. This is a good skill to adapt because in the medical field you want your patients to be as comfortable as possible when they are around you since it makes the overall experience more genuine and comfortable. In America, many different people from many different cultures come from all over the world and can feel displaced when entering a new country that is majority caucasion. Doctors that can relate on a personal level with what they are going through or where they are originally from can help patients become more open to discuss their medical history with full transparency. Having our doctors be equipped to handle different situations with patients may even save lives when pertaining to certain scenarios. An example of this is a panic attack because the doctor needs to be equipped with an individual approach for each type of patient and figure out the root cause. A national approach would focus more on fixing the curriculum taught in medical school to fit the needs of each country individually. This approach could be beneficial because then students would have a greater understanding of common issues, but it lacks any real understanding of problems that may come from other countries or in an emergency, being able to help other countries. Ultimately, a global approach is more beneficial because doctors would not only get to travel abroad to understand how other doctors learn, but also get to grasp how to interact with patients from different cultural backgrounds.
Another benefit to taking a global approach on this topic is because although each nation has its own set of contingencies, people from all over the world travel and live in different countries than they originated from. Traveling abroad would give doctors a first hand interaction with countries’ most popular and least popular medical problems so they could be prepared for anything. While some may say that doctors should only focus on their own nation’s problems because some countries have strict borders and therefore would be impractical for them to learn about other nations; this is a weak argument because gaining insight on popular diseases that could circle the globe will only benefit doctors if symptoms were to arise in patients. For instance Corona-Virus, popularly known as COVID-19, originated in China and infected millions of people from the United States to Italy to Brazil. This was because of travel between countries and doctors had to communicate with one another in order to help stop the spread and produce a vaccine with positive outcomes. In the beginning, many thought that it would not spread as vastly as it did because it was in a country thousands of miles away; ultimately it did spread rapidly and it benefited all doctors to learn about symptoms that could arise in patients depending on age, gender and more. It can be disguised as common cold symptoms and therefore doctors need to be vigilant on differentiating the signs when examining patients. This is a great example because although this virus originated in one country, it affected most of the world and therefore required everyone to fully learn and grasp how to handle it. A national approach on the other hand would have doctors train more in depth on the common medical issues that are prevalent in their area. This would allow doctors to become specialized in their nation’s most common medical problems and potentially produce higher success rates in patients. Instead of traveling abroad like a global approach would, doctors would change their medical school curriculum to solely relate to their specific nation. This would also make more sense for countries with strict borders because they have low chances of being exposed to diseases that could spread from another country. Although a national approach would make more sense in some situations, a global approach is still more effective because countries need to be prepared for anything and would only benefit from learning from one country to another.
Taking a global approach on how doctors should be trained is the most effective way to have them be equipped with more tools in their belt because traveling abroad will introduce them to new ways of thinking and allow them to be prepared for anything. Although a national approach would allow for doctors to become more specialized in their own nation’s problems and potentially produce higher rates of success, a global approach is stronger because every country has people that could potentially bring any disease whether they are aware of it or not.
