Medical Sciences curriculum exclusion for the deaf community in Puerto Rico

• In Event: 2320 - Section on Disability in Society Refereed Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 3 Section on Disability in Society Refereed Roundtables

Abstract

The history of Puerto Rico has demonstrated how important is the developing professionals in every area of expertise. Professionals that are emphatic in the community in which they live in. This philosophy has been adopted by the Medical College Admission Test . Since 2012, they have integrated questions to their tests adapted to the social community as part of a pilot and experimental plan. The results of this project were so successful, they continued these types of questions as an essential part of the test. With this new challenge, the medical science schools started to evaluate candidates that coursed behavioral sciences. At the same time, premedical programs, biology, and others updated their curriculum with the objective of integrating and requiring minimum requirements in the social-humanistic programs. These courses are focused for students to obtain content knowledge to pass the tests and be admitted in the different areas related to medicine and develop specialists to work with the population they encounter.
In this paper, we will present data and conclusion about the analysis of content about the curriculum of some professional areas in the medicine department from Medical Sciences Campus and sign language. It is important to remember that one of the essential components of the courses in behavioral sciences is social research. Acknowledging social-demographic characteristics, social perspectives, language and behavior of the population that will be encountered, it will increase the knowledge of every professional and the best ways on how they can serve the community with the best practices. There are several results that demonstrate that these skills have supported health professionals. An example can be well obtained by Jose Vargas Vidot on how to integrate social communities in medical practices.

Author

• Nelson Arnaldo Vera Hernandez, University of Puerto Rico-Aguadilla