Education

Taking a More Holistic Approach to Global Health Education

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/20/world/europe/20iht-educlede20.html?pagewanted=2&ref=educationandschools

Student’s main reason to be in school is to receive an education that will help them in the long run. Their goal is not to focus on being healthy everyday or preventing diseases in themselves and other peers. Dr. Piot is the director of a school who studies medicine in hope that diseases and sickness won’t spread to Europe and third world countries. He states that his school’s main purpose is to study sickness endemic to overseas territories which are usually carried by soldiers returning home. Now, addressing public health in school systems has become harder and harder because of factors such as socioeconomic status and politics. One solution that Dr. Piot has in mind is to think more broadly and taking into account things such as malnutrition, water contamination, inadequate health care, and government involvement. Students who are studying medicine to become doctors are taking a more holistic approach by visiting other countries where health is an issue and keeping students in school healthy is important as well. “We are not doing something right if we aren’t focusing on keeping our students healthy in our own education systems” says Dr. Piot.

I believe that taking a more holistic approach to health education is vital in today’s society for many of reasons. First, as Americans, we can become ignorant to the other countries around us and forget that we can work with them to keep our students healthy. More third world countries have bigger diseases to worry about such as students with AIDS, malaria, and diseases caught from contaminated water. Whereas people in the US deal with the flu, catching a cold, and chicken pox with students. If Dr. Piot trains students who are wanting to become doctors to go abroad and learn how to experience different diseases, they are learning on a broader scale. Training future doctors to improve their physical exams and to diagnose efficiently will prevent students from getting and staying sick. There will always be sick people in the world, and there will always be a need for doctors around the world to cure them. Dr. Piot is on the right track to making the world a better and healthier place for students.