The Women's Health Specialty: Curriculum Implications (original) (raw)
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Women's Health New Models of Care and a New Academic Discipline
Shortcomings in the delivery of health care to women have become evident. One proposed solution is the creation of a separate specialty of women's health within medicine. This article views the debate as having two components, the first being that of clinical services for women, the second that of women's health as a body of knowledge. With regard to women's health programs, a model is proposed using allied health professionals and nursing advanced practitioners. In that context, the question of medical specialty in women's health is less relevant because the physician is not the primary care provider. With regard to women's health as a body of knowledge, the need for education and research in women's health is recognized. A framework is proposed for the development of an applied discipline in women's health with education and teaching at the master's level. Further recommended changes are (1) creation of Wellness models of care for women, (2) restructuring of medical specialties, with internal medicine and family medicine to include routine gynecologic care so that healthy women do not need two physicians, (3) reassessment of medical liability in conjunction with use of allied health problems and nursing advanced practitioners, (4) use of technology to expand women's access to health education and services, (5) creation of partnerships across disciplines, including public health, medicine, nursing, women's studies, medical sociology, psychology, and (6) reexamination of the hierarchy of power within medicine and the assumption that medical care is health care.
CON: Women's Health as a Specialty
Journal of Women's Health. Summer 1992, 1(2): 101-106. doi:10.1089/jwh.1992.1.101., 1992
A proposed call for a new specialty in women's health is an attempt to rectify current inadequacies in the care of women. This paper discusses ninteenth century origins of the current organization of medical specialties in which the male body is the norm and woman becomes "other." Nineteenth century attitudes toward women, with the belief in the biological inferiority of women due to their sexual organs, and the replacement of midwives by physicians, became the basis of this bifurcated system of care in which women require two physicians for their ongoing care. A reorganization of medical specialties is proposed in which: (1) Internal medicine incorporates the primary care aspect of gynecology, as does family medicine; (2) Obstetrics and gynecology remains the surgical and referral specialty that it is; (3) Interdisciplinary research addresses gaps in understanding the role of reproductive events, hormones, and cycles to normal and pathological functioning; (4) Medical students are taught to identify across gender lines; (5) All specialties are examined for the purpose of making them "user friendly" to women; and (6) The medical profession addresses and rectifies past inequities in the conceptual framework about women and their subsequent denial of leadership opportunities. The need for education in women's health is acknowledged, but with the goal of making that need obsolete. A new specialty has the potential to further isolate women's issues from mainstream medicine and to marginalize its practitioners.
Women as providers of health care
WHO chronicle, 1983
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Towards a woman- friendly healthcare system
I have been in the profession of women’s health for half a century. I have seen great scientific advances in our field, but I, among others, have been questioning, from time to time, whether we are taking into consideration women’s perspectives and expectations in the services we are offering them. I present ten propositions on how we can make our healthcare system friendly to women. These propositions are partly about what the system has to learn, but also what the system has to unlearn.
2018
Deconstructing societal perspectives on gender and analyzing the effect thereof on women’s health with a focus on its significance to future healthcare professionals.