| The Department of Preventive and Social Medicine at the Goa Medical College, India, now includes a UNICEF-supported rural health centre. As well as serving the medical needs of 20 000 persons, the centre functions as a training school for medical interns and student nurses. During their 8-week posting at the rural health centre, the interns actively participate in its activ ities by attending to emergency calls, taking part in the health education progra spending a week in training with the social worker, the sanitary inspector, the public health nurse, and the midwife, in the outpatient service. They conduct surveys on village health problems and take field trips to investigate sanitary conditions, work conditions, mother and child health clinics, family planning clinics, etc. Unfortunately, public health is not considered very important by either faculty or students. It is suggested that if deans, principals, and professors were given an orientation co concepts of cause and spread of disease, this attitude might change. |