Læknablaðið - 01.12.1963, Page 54

174
LÆKNABLAÐIÐ
WeL, £. C,
TIIE PRIMIPLES AND
PRACTICE OF POST
GRADCATE EDCCATIOA *
Medicine is living and deve-
loping biological science grow-
ing and expanding with speed.
Indeed it has heen estimated
tliat the snm of medical know-
ledge douhles every ten years.
Medical education does not
stand in isolation - it is a hranch
of medicine and it reflects not
only the lessons of tlie past hut
also present concepts. It has to
anticipate the clianges of the fu-
ture for the student we are
training to-day is the doctor of
to-morrow.
I Iiave chosen as the title of
my paper the “Principles and
Practice of Post Graduate Edu-
cation“ hecause I am persuaded
that we must first study the es-
sential principles before satis-
factory practice can he acliieved.
While wliat we do in practice
— our techniques — will show
variation from country to count-
ry and from centre to centre,
depending upon local require-
ments, custom and facilities,
* Erindi flutt á læknaþingi L. í.
28. júní 1903.
there may he more general
agreement on the essential prin-
eiples.
Post Graduate Education, as
it now stands, lias “growed like
Topsy”! hut it is now becoming
so complex, so. important and
so essential to all that we must
pause to consider clearty what
our objectives and purposes
should he if we are to plan pro-
grammes of study to meet mod-
ern conditions.
Had I been asked to define
the purpose of undergraduate
education forty years ago I
would have replied that it was
lo produce the complete doctor
who could take liis place in in-
dependenl practice with a de-
gree of competencv in all fields.
The explosion of knowledge
of the last four or five decades
lias necessitated tliat the under-
graduate should learn more and
more and il was the undergrad-
uate deans who wrestled witli
the prohlem of trying to squeeze
an ever increasing content into
the relatively limited time avail-
ahle.