Medical intern at the Ateneo School of Medicine and Public Health, Pasig, Philippines, where she is undertaking the Community Enhanced Internship Program.
Independent health policy researcher with focus in health financing.
Health Hum Rights. 2019 Jun;21(1):141-147.
The Philippine community internship program, originally created to supplement the country's thinning health workforce while providing training to student doctors, poses a legal and ethical challenge for medical interns. Inherent characteristics of the program-such as financial disparities and burdens, the lack of supervision by senior doctors, the competence of student doctors, and short rotation times-can predispose interns to cause harm to the patients and communities they serve. As currently designed, the internship program has the capacity to leave interns unsupervised, at risk of legal ramifications, constantly questioning the correctness of their interventions, and perpetually straddling conflicting role virtues. By failing to ensure that the community internship program has appropriate safeguards in place, the government not only jeopardizes the welfare of interns but also threatens the quality and continuity of care that patients and communities receive, potentially violating their right to the highest attainable standard of health. One medical school recently started a novel internship program that could address the issues mentioned.
菲律宾的社区实习项目最初是为了补充该国日益减少的医疗劳动力，并为医学生提供培训，但这给医学实习生带来了法律和伦理方面的挑战。该项目固有的一些特点，如经济差距和负担、缺乏资深医生的监督、医学生的能力以及较短的轮转时间，可能使实习生对他们所服务的患者和社区造成伤害。按照目前的设计，实习项目有可能让实习生无人监督，从而面临法律后果，他们不断质疑自己干预措施的正确性，并经常在冲突的角色美德之间左右为难。政府未能确保社区实习项目有适当的保障措施，不仅危及实习生的福利，还威胁到患者和社区所获得的护理质量和连续性，可能侵犯了他们享有能达到的最高健康标准的权利。最近，一所医学院开始了一项新的实习项目，可能会解决上述问题。
