M. Weber1 M. Kuhlenbäumer2 B. Mutschler3 B. Schüler4 ¾rztliche Patientenbetreuung im stationären Hospiz Hausärztliche Erfahrungen und Präferenzen...
M. Weber1 M. Kuhlenbäumer2 B. Mutschler3 B. Schüler4 ¾rztliche Patientenbetreuung im stationären Hospiz Hausärztliche Erfahrungen und Präferenzen...
Background: Palliative care has become more apparent to the public as an important part of medical care in the past years. Accordingly it has been established as an obligatory part in the undergraduate education of medical students, confirmed in the Medical Licensure Act for medical education in Germany („Ärztliche Approbations-ordnung“). Since most of palliative patients are treated by their family physicians we wanted to know to what extent academic family medicine institutions in Germany were involved in basic medical education in palliative care.Methods: Family medicine institutions at the 36 German medical faculties were asked to answer a questionnaire as to their participation in palliative care education. 29 questionnaires were returned.Results: The reported involvement in the palliative care education was 55 % (and 59 % where a palliative care department was established) An established curriculum for palliative care was reported by nine faculties.Conclusion: Because of the importance of family medicine in everyday care of palliative patients its academic institutions should correspondingly have a broad involvement in basic medical education in palliative care. Unfortunately their participation is only 55 %.
In an Era of Commercialism Medicine is Losing its Identity as a Healing PracticeSummary: Modern medicine follows more and more market criteria. Economic considerations might be very important for medicine, but they must not become the leading one. Clearly medicine has another task, another duty, another mission than to invest money, namely to help people in need and to assist those who cannot help themselves. Since personal involvement of doctors is completely devaluated with the actual incentive scheme we must develop new schemes to reward exactly those colleagues who contribute to make medicine an experience of personal care. If the physician now is becoming a businessman instead of a personal doctor, this will lead to a situation where he doesn’t give any other promise than not to act against the contract. But the main need of the patient, his longing for a human person whom he can trust, this need cannot become part of a contract. Especially in our time medicine has to fight for the core of its identity. Medicine is a profession which can only remain a profession if it succeeds in preserving the liberty of doing what medicine demands and not what economics demands. This liberty is not a privilege but a duty – necessary for the patients of the future.
