Memories of SHS beginnings

 

Dr. Victor A. Reyes

Member, Board of Regents

University of the Philippines

 

 

(Speech delivered during the 20th Recognition Rites of the School of Health Sciences, University of the Philippines Manila, at the Kanhuraw Convention Center, Tacloban City, on April 27, 2000.)

 

 

First of all, I must tell you how exciting it is for me to return to the scene of a creative struggle that involved a group of dedicated Tacloban health workers and a committee from the College of Medicine.  From scratch as it were, and motivated by a concern for the medically underserved communities of our country, we evolved this experimental school with many innovative features that have now been institutionalized. 

 

It is most gratifying to see that through twenty-four years, the School has been thriving well, and that in addition, it has been replicated elsewhere, albeit with variations.  Because I have been relatively uninformed of the School’s life and times since shortly after we started it, I am therefore grateful for the written briefs from Dr. Koh, which appear to be part of the on-going evaluation of the innovative health sciences education programs.

 

Allow me to share some ideas (however bland or old hat they may seem), ideas that have occurred to me while perusing these briefs and the evaluation plan.  For obvious reasons, the evaluation team should include inputs from and interviews with the actual recipients of services beyond the perception of community observers.  Whether their responses are favorable or not, our own action as a School should be to inculcate an attitude in our students, at times difficult but always necessary, that of giving our services on the terms of the recipient.

 

From the Department of Health and other institutions sending us their scholars, it may be well to request them for information on specific problems or needs of communities that their scholars are expected to serve.  There may be inputs toward curricular development.  And while not all specified wishes may be addressed, some principles might be gleaned from the different cultural or situational variations of our national communities.  Along this line of thought, it may also be worth working towards recruiting students from the un-represented provinces, so that we may someday become truly a national model.

 

As a School of the University of the Philippines System, our mandate is both academic excellence and relevance, for each without the other is like clapping with one hand.  There is no doubt that the School’s primary mission, the reason for its existence, is the search for a relevant education, and I think we have remained faithful to that goal. 

 

But can we lay claim to having attained academic excellence?  I think the answer is yes, for I consider that with the innovative features of the School, namely, from the admissions policy, to the ladder curriculum and service leaves, we have evolved a pragmatic form of academic excellence – new, creative and service-oriented. 

 

But we must not rest on these, for the community is unique and replete with rural problems begging to be studied.  Let us charge our faculty, our masteral and doctoral post-graduates, to harness our younger students into meaningful research that can contribute to the fund of knowledge.  This would be the best mode of self-education for all involved in the research, besides being the essence of academic excellence for the School.

 

Let me now tell you about one of the men who helped us in the beginning of our School, Dr. Gunawan Nugroho.  I met him during an international symposium held to examine various “barefoot” doctor programs of Asia, which was held in Davao City and Jakarta, Indonesia in 1973.   I was impressed by his presentation and requested a visit to his program in Jogjakarta. 

 

He had with him a team of dedicated professionals, and they would reside quietly in a community until their presence is questioned.  Although they had observed glaring health problems, they would not give voice to their perceptions until eventually the community in dialogue would reveal their biggest problem – always one not even imagined by the team.  Thus, a community with a high maternal and child mortality actually felt that what they needed was an increased production of their rice crop.  The engineer in Nugroho’s team helped the community solve that problem with a small dam and an irrigation system.  Quite soon, the team’s perceived health problems disappeared with the prosperity that was brought about by the doubled crop yield.

 

In another community, the banker organized the community into a credit union that got rid of the usurers plaguing the people, whereas the team’s perception was that the horribly deteriorated environment was the root of the community’s health problems.  This is the principle known as the “felt need” approach to health care; that is, through community development.

 

I told Dr. Nugroho that I expected to see him in the World Health Organization (WHO), where such a creative idea is most needed.  A few years later, when our Dean’s Committee was on our way to Tacloban for our weekly meeting, I unexpectedly saw Dr. Nugroho at the airport.  He was being sent by the World Health Organization to see a project called the “Tacloban experiment.”  You can imagine how very pleased I was to introduce him to our team and, as they say, he became part of the history of the School.

 

I have narrated the origin of the WHO principle of “felt need” in development to remind us that, at whatever level of skill and knowledge we may possess to bring to bear in serving our people, we must keep our minds open as we touch their lives, for it may well be a non-medical problem that is the crying community need.  True, you may not have a team like Dr. Nugroho’s to back you up – but it will be a measure of your commitment and resourcefulness in mobilizing not only the community but (also) government and non-government entities. 

 

The School should of course be open to inputs from workers in the field.  If you should succeed in some such project – I would truly envy you, for you will have become the ideal, the true compleat health worker.  It is relatively easy to succeed on a one-on-one basis in medical care, but this success pales in comparison with an action by an effective worker in public health that benefits an entire community.

 

You may have noticed I have kept referring to the School as “our School.”  I like to think that I am still part of the team – on extended leave as it were, and as such I am entitled to give unsolicited advice.  Do not be content at whatever point in work and life you find yourselves.  Be always open to improving your situation, the ladder remains for you to climb, the continuing education program should always be availed of, for education is a life-long pursuit of ever-expanding knowledge.

 

Involve yourselves in research with the faculty and older students.  It is the best form of self-education, and research involving the community is a natural for the School of Health Sciences.

 

I wish you all good and fulfilling works.

 

Congratulations to you and your folks.