November 17, 2022 — The Department of Health and UP Manila officials jointly reviewed current strategies and mapped stronger ones on human resource for health (HRH) education and training during the 2nd Curriculum Mapping of Public Health Competencies in the Health Sciences workshop on Nov. 11 and 12 at the Novotel Hotel, Quezon City.
During the discussions, DOH OIC Ma. Rosario Vergeire reiterated that a needs assessment or national inventory is important to guide academic institutions in aligning their training programs. She stated that the DOH will commission an inventory of existing workforce and facilities to be fast tracked by universities that will be invited to the study.
“To successfully address our health system’s gaps and ensure adequate HRH providing necessary healthcare services to the country’s growing population, we must harness the expertise of higher education institutions and collaborate to develop strategies and policies that are needs-based and public health-focused,” Vergeire pointed out.
In presenting the DOH HRH Masterplan for 2020-2040, DOH Health Promotion Bureau Director Beverly Ho explained that more than shortening the students’ training, the orientation of the medical students is more important (that is now heavy on specialization). “There is a need to revisit programs to equally produce specialists and primary care physicians,” she said.
Current innovations being utilized in UP Manila programs discussed during the forum were InterProfessional Education which is more practiced in the community setting and the ladderized curricula but which takes long, according to Vergeire; hence, she proposed short courses as stop gap.
The issue of Advanced Practice Nursing in diagnosis/treatment with the Commission on Higher Education now developing guidelines for Advanced Nursing Education and the use of team teaching were also raised.
“To successfully address our health system’s gaps and ensure adequate HRH providing necessary healthcare services to the country’s growing population, we must harness the expertise of higher education institutions and collaborate to develop strategies and policies that are needs-based and public health-focused,” Vergeire pointed out.
To address the theoretical nature of most UP Manila curricular programs, which is a feedback from an earlier survey, UP Manila Chancellor Carmencita Padilla recommended to strengthen the integration of the public health competencies into the university’s existing programs, adding that “this has a big place in the College of Arts and Sciences courses.” The UPM chancellor also recommended curricular reviews to align with the primary care providers and address the training needs for sanitation inspectors and health regulators. Vice Chancelor Nymia Simbulan, meanwhile, proposed the integration of the social science perspective into the health sciences programs.
Health Usec Mario Villaverde suggested integrating the following competencies as also required in the Universal Health Care law—Health Systems Thinking, Health Promotion and Advocacy, Epidemiology and Disease Surveillance, Disaster Risk Reduction and Management, and Community Health Competency as well as a course in Supply Chain Management and Health Economics/Health Financing which are “critical in medical training because physicians will make important decisions.”
Cynthia M. Villamor
