Journal of Preventive Medicine

Description

The COVID-19 pandemic emphasizes the significance of early illness outbreak detection, prompt and decisive public health measures, and fortifying public health systems. As a medical specialty, preventive medicine teaches students about public health as well as clinical care, and it is especially important in the fight against this pandemic. Preventive medicine graduates make up a sizable portion of the workforce in China, where the field plays a distinctive role in the nation's disease management system. Nevertheless, the Chinese disease control system lacks skilled personnel. There are several factors contributing to this scarcity. From the standpoint of human resources, the preventive medicine postgraduates' exclusive public health training and undergraduate curriculum restrict their clinical abilities.

Environmental damage

Effective disease identification and control may be threatened by a number of disease control and public health education reforms that may further impair the clinical skills of preventive medicine graduates. This could happen unintentionally by growing the gap between public health and clinical medicine. The authors advocate for strengthening clinical medicine curricula, expanding public health curricula, improving preventive medicine residency programs, and changing laws that prohibit preventive medicine graduates from practicing curative medicine in order to improve and optimize preventive medicine and close the gap between clinical medicine and public health. The COVID-19 pandemic underscores the significance of promptly identifying disease outbreaks, implementing prompt and resolute public health measures, and fortifying public health infrastructures. One of the numerous lessons that have emerged since the epidemic began in China is the necessity for the country to improve the education system in preventive medicine in order to close the knowledge gap between public health and clinical (curative) medicine. At the moment, the majority of clinical doctors in China lack adequate clinical training, and the majority of public health workers in charge of disease control are not trained in public health. This puts people's lives in danger and compromises the effectiveness of identifying and managing illness epidemics.

Preventive quality

In China, there is a lack of understanding on the distinction between public health and preventative medicine. Since preventive medicine is frequently viewed as a subspecialty of medicine, clinical training is seen as the cornerstone, with further training focusing on public health. Several affluent nations, like the US and Canada, require two to three years of residency training in public health and clinical skills. Frequently, primary care certification is granted to trainees, enabling them to engage in curative medicine. On the other hand, public health is a multidisciplinary field that encompasses a wide range of academic specialties, such as political science, epidemiology, biostatistics, health economics, and sociology. Public health professionals don't always come from medical backgrounds. China does treat preventative medicine as a specialty of medicine, according to its curricula. In China, the majority of undergraduate programs in preventive medicine consist of five years of primarily clinical and basic science instruction: one year of public health and four years of basic health science and curative medicine. The students then graduate with their medical degrees.