LETTER TO THE DIRECTOR

 

Some considerations concerning tutelary teaching in Medical Sciences

 

Algunas consideraciones sobre la enseñanza tutelar en las ciencias médicas

 

 

Medical Science University of Pinar del Rio. Pinar del Rio. Cuba

*Author for correspondence:

 

 

Received: may 06, 2017
Accepted: june 29, 2018
Published: september 09, 2018

Dear Director;

Every teaching-educational process in the medical sciences has as its essential purpose the achievement of a set of transformations in the personality of the student. These transformations refer to the acquisition, development or reorganization of knowledge, convictions, abilities, habits, attitudes and modes of action in the field of public health.

In the course of the tutelary activity, the aforementioned objectives can be achieved, bearing in mind that educational processes move from teaching to learning and from dependency towards independence. This conditions the learner to produce the minimum of memoristic and educational methods to make way for heuristic, search and productive methods.

The tutorial work or tutoring is an ancient practice that has been important through ancient times; an example of this was constituted by civilizations such as Greece and Rome where this term was spoken in the training of young people (1).The figure of the tutor has traveled through history since ancient times. This qualifier of Greek mythology has become eponymous for a teacher, wise and trustworthy counselor.

That is why in the tutelary training of medical science students, tutors are required to systematically improve themselves in order to educate knowledge, values, and modes of action required for the improvement of the teaching-learning process and with it, the comprehensive training of students who face the demands the current Cuban society aspires (2).

Tutelary teaching also seeks to apply problem-solving and strategic methods that develop not only analytical-inductive thinking in medical science professionals, but also synthetic-deductive thinking, the original and creative character, as well as the development of the ability to take important decisions in the missions that must be assumed in undergraduate and postgraduate training.

Tutelary teaching in medical sciences is characterized by the fact that the tutor ceases to be the basic source of information, so that the learner is nourished fundamentally through his/her own work, that is to say, the activities of education at work as the main structure of education. Organization of the teaching-learning process and independent study are indispensable tools. The tutor is responsible to guide, and organize the setting that favors the learning, being at the same time, the controller of all of the teaching-educational processes to guarantee the comprehensive training of students.

When developing the tutelary activities in any teaching-learning environment, career, subjects or program of study, the tutor must keep in mind the missions that correspond to him/her as: observer, supervisor, counselor and assessor of the activity, while the student has the role of accomplishing and learn from the different teaching tasks that must be assumed. There is no doubt that tutelary teaching is the most complete and complex structure of education in the workplace that is carried out in the teaching of medical sciences, but is there any other suitable method of tutelary teaching?

There is no ideal teaching method or universal one for it. Their variety and application depend on the material, human and professional conditions of training that exist for learning. The method used should correspond to the scientific level of the content, which will stimulate the creative activity and motivate the development of cognitive interests that link the university with health care, life and society. One should not pretend to make schematic norms for its realization, but rather to offer guides and experiences for its development; in addition, there is a need for certain flexibility, skills, support techniques and skills from the part of the tutor to carry out adequate tutelary teaching.

How should guidance be carried out in the medical sciences? For this, a series of aspects to be considered by the tutors in the development of a guidance is basically recommended:

• The control and evaluation of the tasks or independent studies oriented to the student in the previous tutelage, where the tutor can raise real or elaborated problems for this purpose and for its analysis. Control or evaluation questions can also be developed to explore and deepen on the knowledge acquisition of the learners.

• The tutor must record the deficiencies and skills that are met in the learner assessing the results achieved qualitative and quantitatively.

• Participation of the tutor in the care, educational, administrative and research functions developed by the students, assuming all times the roles of guidance, controller and promulgator of these functions. The tutor-educator relationship in the development of tutelage must be strengthened on affective and communicative bases.

• To guarantee the adequate development of values ​​in students of medical sciences, as well as bioethical principles in their professional performance and the clinical method as the main tool in the doctor-patient relationship, as well as to achieve an interdisciplinary approach among subjects or profiles where attention is prioritized to the comprehensive development of the individuals, family and community without neglecting the environment.

• Ensure the fulfillment of the self-preparation and the overcoming of the learners and tutors individually, particularizing difficulties, deficiencies and stagnation within the teaching-learning process. From this, it must design activities or strategies for the solution of these adversities, while maintaining close communication with all the processes and factors involved.

The tutelary education constitutes an essential pillar in the training processes of the medical students. It is the cornerstone in Cuban universities because medical students achieve a greater degree of independence, creativity and behavioral changes from more active methods in teaching, scientifically qualified tutors along with the inclusion of information and communication technologies into the development of a determined activity.

In general, the performance of the tutor in the training of medical students is a pedagogical task of deep love, so it must maintain an educational quality and design to achieve positive and thoughtful results.

In Pinar del Rio University of Medical Sciences, as well as in other institutions all over the country, where the aim of education is the comprehensive training of the individual and a personalized attention, logically the performance of the tutor must be the backbone of the educational practice, so that it responds to this demand and contributes to the achievement of the conception of quality in the current institutions (3).

Strengthen the performance of the tutor in the training of medical science students under the precepts of an adequate educational methodology and an efficient education at work, which will allow a correct acquisition of knowledge, skills and values, as well as guarantee the training of health system graduates with the quality and efficiency that Cuban society requires for the present and future development.

 

REFERENCIAS BIBLIOGRÁFICAS

1. Díaz Díaz J, Bravo López G, González Puerto Y, Hernández Pérez E, Menes Ortega L, Bratuet Abreus Y. El papel del tutor en la Educación Superior. Medisur[Internet]. 2012 [citado 21 Abr 2017]; 10(2): [Aprox. 4 p.]. Disponible en: http://www.medisur.sld.cu/index.php/medisur/article/view/1998

2. Baute Álvarez LM, Iglesias León M. Sistematización de una experiencia pedagógica: la formación del profesor universitario. Pedagogía Universitaria[Internet]. 2011 [citado 21 Abr 2017]; 16(1): [Aprox. 14 p.] Disponible en: http://cvi.mes.edu.cu/peduniv/index.php/peduniv/article/view/60/58

3. Díaz Dorado C, Llerena Bermúdez FM, Núñez Martínez MC, Menéndez Rodríguez G, González Pérez L. La superación de los tutores como premisa en la formación de profesionales. Perfil Servicios Farmacéuticos. Medisur [Internet]. 2012 [citado 2017 Mar 22]; 10(3): [Aprox. 18 p.]. Disponible en: 
http://medisur.sld.cu/index.php/medisur/article/viewFile/2194/7252

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