Citation

Thurston WE, McLeod L. Womens Health Issues 1997; 7(2): 92-98.

Affiliation

Department of Community Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1997, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

9071880

Abstract

This paper discusses the necessity to revise the health professional curricula. The reason for this is to change the longstanding practices and attitudes that have failed to promote women's health. However, the change is insufficient as long as there is a body of untrained and biased leadership in practice, which is evident among some health personnel who routinely underestimate the extent of wife abuse in their clients. Moreover, in a study of hospital emergency departments, 28% believed that less than 1% of emergency room patients were victims of violence and only 13% estimated 10% or more. In addition, a survey of family therapists found that 60% did not believe that family violence was a significant problem among their clients. Another study found that 40% did not recognize clear evidence of violence in the vignettes provided. In view of these findings, it is concluded that even if we succeed in educating medical students, their role models and supervisors may be less informed and may undo the work done by teachers with scorn and ridicule. Hence, a comprehensive approach to continuing and postgraduate medical education is needed to support the efforts of medical school teaching.

Language: en