| Aspiring medical
students of the 21st century are entering the
healing profession at a time when more than fifty
percent of their patients will likely desire to
incorporate or turn to systems of healing from
other cultures and philosophies. At the University
of Sint Eustatius School of Medicine we believe
our students need to be prepared to address this
reality in the practice of medicine. Therefore,
we are integrating into the basic science curricula
and clinical experiences a broader focus which
includes the history, culture and philosophy of
numerous systems of healing as well as essential
data on safety, research, and implementation issues
in the current context of patient care.
We believe it is important for
our students to have a broad understanding of
approaches to healing that include acupuncture,
herbalism, nutritional supplementation, massage
and manual therapies, as well as spiritual and
energetic approaches to healing. These diverse
approaches to healing are commonly used world-wide
and being informed and learning to approach these
issues without bias is essential for the health
care professional of the 21st century.
This advanced approach is called
integrative medicine or an integral health approach.
An integral health approach considers and communicates
a multi-dimensional view of life and living that
understands that people are more than physical
beings. Integral medicine approaches the person
as a physical, mental, emotional and spiritual
being living in a complex cultural, life experience,
and environmental context. It understands the
conventional models of health maintenance, maximization
or restoration, while it also considers the value
and efficacy of complementary and alternative
therapies, approaches, and lifestyles applied
in a scientific manner. It is an approach delivered
in a caring, sensitive, process-oriented way to
promote optimal health, self-awareness, happiness,
and longevity.
In line with the practice at
such premier medical institutions as the National
Institutes of Health’s Clinical Center,
we teach our students be open-minded rather than
rejecting of a patient’s philosophical and
cultural desires and while building upon the tenets
of good science and strong ethics, seek the optimal
synthesis of multiple medical modalities provided
in harmony with the needs of the patient and deliver
care with reverence and humanism. Our approach
recognizes that the body has a remarkable capacity
for healing that can be facilitated by addressing
the underlying causes of illness and suffering
and understands that each person has unique needs
that must be attended to in every therapeutic
setting and encounter. We also believe it is important
that our students take to heart the root meaning
of the title, “Doctor”, which in Latin
translates to “Teacher”. In this,
we seek our students to learn, practice, and integrate
teaching the tenets of wellness, disease prevention,
and self-care into their routine interactions
with their patients and community.
The integral health premise is
based on an approach articulated by modern philosophers
that human life can be understood from the following
four inter-related aspects:
- our internal experience of self-awareness,
- human existence as described by science,
- the inter-subjective world of culture, and
- social systems and the environment.
Any truly integrated vision of
health and healing must understand the person
from each of these aspects. These same philosophers
further postulate that optimal health is best
achieved when the individual builds and incorporates
a program of self-transformation involving changes
in diet, nutrition, exercise, recreation, social
interaction, and psychological and spiritual development.
A model of integral health directs individuals
to these necessary and personal transformations.
It is the goal of the University
of Sint Eustatius School of Medicine to be at
the forefront of advances in medical education
curriculum development through an adoption of
an integral health approach. We believe that this
approach meets both the desires of our students
as well as the needs of their future patients.
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