Medical Education Opens to a New Field: Home Health Care Services

Prof. Dr. Göksel Altınışık Ergur, a faculty member of the PAU Faculty of Medicine, has been inviting patients and their relatives to the first lecture of first-year students for the past two years. Through this practice, she aims to help students recognize the importance of viewing patients within their social environments and understanding illnesses through their multifaceted causes while learning the medical profession. Observing the strong interest of students in these classes, Prof. Dr. Altınışık Ergur was encouraged to take another step on the path toward good medical practice by facilitating early contact with patients and their relatives. In this context, she emphasized that diversifying field studies and enabling students to prepare for the future by taking part in daily medical practices is highly important, noting that international guidelines in medical education recommend that medical students experience the profession as early as possible. Prof. Dr. Göksel Altınışık Ergur recently implemented this pilot practice through a scientific research project, for which ethical approval was obtained from the PAU Faculty of Medicine Ethics Committee, by planning an educational activity that would provide valuable field-based contributions to medical education through accompanying her students in home health care services.

In this project, the initiative carried out through cooperation between the Denizli Provincial Directorate of Health and the PAU Rectorate yielded positive results. The cooperation protocol was signed on January 5 by PAU Rector Prof. Dr. Mahmud Güngör and Denizli Provincial Director of Health Specialist Dr. Berna Öztürk. Vice Rector Prof. Dr. İbrahim Türkçüer was also present at the protocol ceremony.

Within the scope of the protocol, PAU Faculty of Medicine first-year students who will participate in home health care services for observation will be able to recognize the challenges faced by patients and their relatives, and observe how living environments affect disease development and treatment responses. This experience will enable future physicians to view individuals not only as biological beings but also as social and psychological entities. The participating students are also members of the Medical Art Student Community. As the academic advisor of the community, Prof. Dr. Altınışık Ergur will conduct analyses of every stage of this activity together with her students in light of scientific data. Stating that the ultimate goal is to develop a program that will enable these and similar field studies to be included in the medical education curriculum, Prof. Dr. Altınışık Ergur noted that the initiation and subsequent dissemination of this practice in Türkiye is expected to make significant contributions to the field of medical education in the international context as well.