write 3 page paper on the contribution of abraham flexner to medical education reform

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The Contribution of Abraham Flexner to Medical Education Reform
In the early 1900s, Abraham Flexner an educational expert undertook an assignment towards reforming the medical education. In those times, there were significant advancements in medicine sector with crucial discoveries such as bacteria and its classification as an infectious disease. However, Flexner in his report had it that their poor equipment in the medical schools, second-rate institutions and students were inadequately prepared to take various roles in the pharmaceutical sector. His report impacted the medical education sector immensely with the closure of one-third of the medical schools in the country in a decade. Those remained adopted new academic and admissions requirements. Further, it was due to this reason that the state established the modern medical school. The current faculty of medicine was more efficient as it put emphasis on scientifically based training since it was attached to a teaching hospital.
The history of American medical education holds that Flexner report was crucial as it had significant contributions towards the change and reforms. His report gave insights on the downfalls and unfavorable conditions that were inherent in the medical education. Through this, America established a new system of modern medical education. Despite all these contributions, Flexner was just a secondary school teacher in Louisville. Flexner wrote the report while undertaking graduate work at the university of Berlin and Harvard.

Although he wasn’t a doctor, Flexner joined “The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching” where he published the “Medical Education in the United States and Canada” in 1910 (Cooke & Sullivan, 2006). Currently, the report is referred as “the Flexner report.”
The report gained more power as its message appealed to the Americans public basing the nature of the survey and strong concerns on the scientific aspects of teaching and medical practice. The report fueled the reforms and triggered the adoption of better standards and organization in medical practice. His survey indicates the mediocre quality that was employed in many medical schools with a huge number having a profit motive rather than producing competent professionals for the tasks. He also pointed out the inadequate facilities and the use of nonscientific approach in such schools. He criticized this system and indicated that it was in contrast with the “the university-based system of medical education in Germany.” Therefore, he suggested a clinical phase of training for medical students within which students would pursue researches on human diseases rather than research problems that arose in the learning and teaching period. This facilitated the formal analytic reasoning and understanding of the fundamental nature of sciences among the students. It is noted that this approach has contributed to the current state of affairs in the medical sector.
The Flexner’s imaginations are evidenced in the health care environment where an emergence of the second set of conditions is visible in the medical education. Students relate the terms in the health care environment such as profit motive and market capture as a threat to medicine. The need to increase the clinical productivity rather than releasing pain and suffering to patients in medical field goes against the principle of practicing medicine. Most institutions, therefore, emphasize on teaching students by clinical medicine teachers who opt not to engage in commercialized health care business. Moreover, these clinical teachers have familiarized with the modern medical science thus exemplifying the Flexner’s model.
Currently, most universities have assimilated the culture of medical education into their systems of teaching. The students, therefore, encounter more medicine based knowledge as intended by Flexner. The medical reasoning has adopted both theoretical and scientific formulations as primary aspects. After the release of Flexner’s report, medicine is taught as a professional education. The main goal is to have fully prepared students ready to accomplish and practice a responsible service to others. The training bodies have hugely adopted an abundant theory and extensive knowledge that enables students to have both understanding and knowledge-based practice. As Flexner suggested, they hold that “The purpose of medical education is to transmit the knowledge, impart the skills, and inculcate the values of the profession in an appropriately balanced and integrated manner.” (Duffy, 2011).
For efficient transformation and reforms in the medical care, entities have to emphasize on social, political and economic aspects that are linked to health care delivery. The curricular changes require an incorporation of appropriate content into the curriculum which in most instances sounds hard and described as “turf battles.” The relevant stakeholders have a role in defining the appropriate content and incorporating it into the curricula in a way that creates importance in the medical sector. The reforms take a process for full implementation as they are more challenging. Currently, various schools have adopted approaches that incorporate both the teaching of inpatient and outpatient care. Establishment of log term apprenticeship in the medical education is meant to prepare, supervise and mentor trainees. In medicine and surgery education, students are exposed to earlier specialty training.
Abraham Flexner has therefore cheered for reformations in the medical education more than anyone else. His proposal for reconfiguration of medical education has adequately responded to scientific, social and economic circumstances. Such transformations will see the results flourish to generations. Flexner’s essential message was, therefore, to gain the will for flexibility and freedom for a change. Basing on the important studies he did, the foundation of “the institute of advanced study at Princeton” in 1930, and significant variations in the medical sector we have today, Abraham Flexner, therefore, is one of the great contributors that we owe a considerable debt.

References
Duffy, T. (2011). The Flexner Report ― 100 Years Later. PubMed Central (PMC). Retrieved 11 November 2016, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3178858/
Cooke, M. & Sullivan, W. (2006). American Medical Education 100 Years after the Flexner Report — NEJM. New England Journal of Medicine. Retrieved 11 November 2016, from http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMra055445#t=articlen