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EDUMECENTRO 2023;15:e2374
Curricular strategy of Herbal and folk Medicine from the English discipline in medical education
Estrategia curricular de Medicina Natural y Tradicional desde la disciplina inglés en la educación médica
Edys Rodríguez Sendán1*
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5812-4899
Arturo Barata Álvarez1
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5809-5757
Liván Méndez Ferreiro1
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7506-8251
Jorge Luis Chávez
Falcón1 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7850-7341
1 University of Medical Sciences of Villa Clara. Language department. Villa Clara. Cuba.
*Corresponding author. Email: edysrs@infomed.sld.cu
ABSTRACT
The training of professionals demands that the teaching-learning process have an integrating vision to achieve the general objectives with the required levels of depth and mastery. From this, a new way of approaching interdisciplinarity is introduced, applying curricular strategies. The application of herbal and folk Medicine in the training of general practitioners has not been systematic or coordinated by the group of English teachers at the Villa Clara University of Medical Sciences. The authors' objective is to describe a master's thesis that contains: methodology and actions to implement it from the discipline and subjects of English, a postgraduate course for teachers of this language and offers of updated printed and electronic bibliographies as reference materials for the independent study whose contents are satisfactorily applied to solve the aforementioned deficiencies.
MeSH: language; education, medical, undergraduate; education, professional; education, medical.
RESUMEN
La formación de profesionales demanda que el proceso enseñanza aprendizaje tenga una visión integradora para alcanzar los objetivos generales con los niveles de profundidad y dominio requeridos. A partir de ello, es que se introduce una novedosa forma de abordar la interdisciplinariedad, aplicando estrategias curriculares. La aplicación de la Medicina Natural y Tradicional en la formación de los médicos generales no ha sido sistemática ni de forma coordinada por el colectivo de profesores de inglés en la Universidad de Ciencias Médicas de Villa Clara. Es objetivo de los autores describir una tesis de maestría que contiene: metodología y acciones para implementarla desde la disciplina y asignaturas de inglés, un curso de posgrado para profesores de este idioma y ofertas de bibliografías actualizadas impresas y digitales como materiales de consulta para el estudio independiente, cuyos contenidos se aplican de forma satisfactoria para solucionar las carencias mencionadas.
DeSC: lenguaje; educación de pregrado en Medicina; educación profesional, educación médica.
Submitted: 25/03/2022
Accepted: 13/01/2023
Among the disciplines of general training, in the Medicine degree, it is English made up of ten subjects, distributed from first to fifth years. Among the objectives to be achieved are: expressing oneself orally correctly, reading and writing summaries and reports related to health issues in a coherent manner, and mastering other basic aspects of the context attributable to mastering any foreign language.(1)
In the medical sciences, English teachers who work in the clinical cycle, that is, those who teach English for Specific Purposes (IPE) face the difficulty that their pedagogical training does not comprise learning the medical terminology of that language; hence, the need to improve that they have to be able to face the complexities of their teaching; It is even the main author's criteria that even if general English is taught, it should focus on the exit objective that students have as future general practitioners, and whenever the possibility exists, their teaching-learning process should be related to their profession, which would have a positive influence on taking the ESP.
The English language is a means of communication and as such, its mastery offers the possibility of having more opportunities to acquire new knowledge by consulting bibliographies in that language, due to its presence in the greater dissemination of scientific knowledge and forms of culture and art. So, to the extent that students master it, they are acquiring communication and researching skills and new learning styles that allow them to appropriate essential elements related to the different subjects of the curriculum, in order to achieve the expected comprehensiveness in knowledge.(2)
Hence, the responsibility of training in the didactics of medical education that teachers of this discipline have to be able to get involved in a holistic way in the training of students, taking advantage of the potential it offers as a source of development for other subjects, and a bridge that links and provides new possibilities for development in the graduation of a quality professional.
The training of professionals in Cuban higher education demands that the teaching-learning process have an integrating vision through the action of all or some of the units that make up the study plan, to achieve the general objectives proposed with the required levels of depth and mastery. . From this, it is that, in the current curricula, a new way of approaching interdisciplinarity is introduced, applying curricular strategies.
According to Tosar Pérez,(3) a strategy, line or curricular axis in a certain career constitutes a pedagogical approach to the teaching process that is carried out with the purpose of achieving general objectives related to certain knowledge, skills and modes of professional performance that are key in its training, and that it is not possible to achieve them with due depth from the perspective of a single discipline or academic subject, not even with partially integrated study plans and therefore require the participation of more than one, sometimes all the curricular units of the career.
This analysis justifies the need to implement curricular strategies in the Medicine career and entails the urgent need to contribute in all possible ways to its development to guarantee the formation of a fully trained professional, capable of acting in any circumstance that demands their action.
There are criteria in the Faculty of Medicine of Villa Clara University of Medical Sciences, collected in departmental and methodological meetings and reports of completion of courses that, despite the development that in Cuba and other countries of the world the millennial practice of Herbal and folk Medicine (HFM), due to the possibilities it can offer in the treatment of various diseases, the economic contribution it can provide to medical development, and therefore, the need for health professionals to incorporate it into their practice. On a daily basis, the application of the Curricular Strategy of HFM in the training of general practitioners has not been systematic or coordinated by the group of English teachers.
There have been multiple obstacles that have led to it: lack of familiarity with the technical vocabulary related to HFM, few methodological tools to achieve its integration into the discipline and its scarce, almost null, treatment in the discipline and subject groups.
Even though the fourth and fifth-teaching staffs of the Medicine degree have worked on this integration, ensuring that English classes are taught closely linked to the medical rotations through which students pass, difficulties persist in meeting the objectives set of such strategy.
The difficulties of the specific vocabulary used in this branch of medicine, the changes that occur in terms of the nomenclature of medicinal plants and specific acupuncture points, the little practice of teachers in these topics, the lack of existing bibliography, and the limitations in the technical-methodological preparation to face the problem, have led to evade their entry into a field that is undoubtedly extremely rugged, if there is not adequate preparation to solve these deficiencies to implement this strategy in a coordinated manner, homogeneous and coherent.
The main author of this research paper formed a master's thesis to implement the HFM Curricular Strategy from the classes of the English discipline in the Medicine career, whose specific objectives were: to determine the deficiencies in the technical-methodological preparation of English teachers for its implementation through its teaching activities, design actions that contribute to its preparation and assess the proposal by specialist criteria.
The product includes:
a) Methodology to implement the HFM Curricular Strategy from the discipline and subjects of English: aimed at the methodological preparation of English teachers for its implementation. It contains a theoretical body that includes introduction, rationale, the ways to prepare teachers in its application, and the actions to be developed in each of the academic years through the English subject groups in the Medicine degree.
b) Program of the postgraduate course «HFM Curricular Strategy for English teachers of the Medicine degree», oriented towards the technical-methodological preparation of teachers, with very useful tools and aimed at achieving a dynamic teaching-learning process, with a predominance of participatory techniques and practical elements where the subject-strategy interaction is exemplified.
c) Offers of updated printed and e- bibliographies, including websites, the Curricular Strategy HFM guided by the Ministry of Public Health in Cuba, programs and methodological guidelines related to the discipline, etc. for independent study as reference materials.
It was subjected to evaluation by specialists who considered that it has an adequate structure, it is pertinent, since it solves a lack expressed by users, feasible to be applied and well-conceived from the scientific-methodological point of view, for which it was accepted with favorable criteria.
The scientific novelty and its practical contribution lay in the fact that, for the first time at Villa Clara University of Medical Sciences, a study was carried out aimed at the technical-methodological preparation of English teachers in the Medicine degree in order to apply the HFM Curricular Strategy and have a tool that serves as a guide to achieve this interdisciplinarity in the discipline staffs and English subjects.
BIBLIOGRAFIC REFERENCES
1. Colectivo de autores. Comisión Nacional de Carrera Medicina. Grupo Nacional de Asesores Metodológicos para la Enseñanza del Inglés (GNAMEI). Programa de Inglés de Medicina y otras carreras (Plan D). F2F Starter A1. La Habana: Minsap; 2017.
2. Texidor Pellón R, Díaz Valle RR, Reyes Miranda D, Fernández Campo R. Consideraciones sobre calidad del programa del curso de posgrado Inglés Técnico para Profesionales de Estomatología. Educ Med Super [Internet]. 2019 [citado 05/08/2021];33(1):[aprox. 14 p.]. Disponible en: http://www.ems.sld.cu/index.php/ems/article/view/1659/753
3. Tosar-Pérez M. Modelo teórico de evaluación de la estrategia curricular de Medicina Natural y Tradicional de la carrera de Medicina. Educ Med Super [Internet]. 2018 [citado 17/03/2022];32(3):[aprox. 11 p.]. Disponible en: http://www.ems.sld.cu/index.php/ems/article/view/1419/693
Declaration of interests
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Contribution of the authors
Edys Rodríguez Sendán and Arturo Barata Álvarez: they analyzed the master's thesis,
and summarized it, highlighting its most important aspects. They wrote the final report.
Liván Méndez Ferreiro and Jorge Luis Chávez Falcón: they located the bibliographies on
the subject, analyzed them and limited them by Vancouver.
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