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Why Education is Important for Health Professions Students
Many pre-health professions students wonder why they are expected to take such a rigorous set of prerequisite courses and why professional schools pay so much attention to applicants' grades and study habits. An immediate reason for this is the enormous amount of information students are expected to study (and learn) at professional school. Many articles have been published recently that address the crowded professional school curriculum, and it is a problem that will likely only get worse as we demand more and more expertise in our health care providers. The better study habits and study skills, especially scientific study skills, a student has before beginning professional school, the better chance that student has of successfully handling the demands of the school's curriculum. (This does not mean that the best preparation is to take every undergraduate science class offered; instead, taking a few courses in each discipline -- and really learning the material -- can be very effective at providing this development of study skills.) The more important, long-term, reason for expecting pre-health students to develop strong study/learning skills is that health care professionals can never stop learning. Health care professionals must be self-directed, life-long learners in order to have successful careers. Professional training does not end with graduation or with completion of a residency program; it is an on-going necessity for as long as an individual continues to work in health care. Health care professionals need to have a passion for learning and the skills to be their own teachers. Why? Health care is one of the most dynamic of all professions. We are continually learning more about disease processes and about how our bodies fight those diseases. Infectious agents are being discovered, or are re-emerging, at an alarming rate. The explosion of information about genetics is leading to unprecedented developments in disease testing and therapy. Technological developments allow diagnostic procedures and treatments that could barely be dreamt of a dozen years ago. The list could go on and on. A recent quote from a well-known cardiologist sheds light on how rapidly things can change during a health care provider's career:
How are health care providers expected to learn these new techniques and information and to incorporate them into daily practice? In most situations, they need to go out and learn it themselves. Professional journals, seminars, and workshops all provide information about new advances in health care; however, the health care provider needs to have the skills and motivation to read the journal or attend the seminar and then translate that information into practice. The earlier a future health care professional can develop those skills and the desire to continually learn, the better equipped that person will be to take advantage of all the great advances that await us in health care's future.
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