- Email: [email protected]
Fourth annual symposium—20 February
FOURTH ANNUAL SYMPOSIUM 20 FEBRUARY C H A I R M A N - - G . W. H. T O W N S E N D, C.B.E., M.B., B.CH., D.P.H., Chairmanof Council THE Chairman, in his opening remarks, said it was good to see such a large audience because he had been doubtful if the subject would hold such an audience in face of snowy weather. He had felt this in spite of the fact that he knew the organizers must have scoured the country to get the best, having obtained an Irishman as Chairman and a Scotsman as Speaker. Professor Morrison, he said, was so well known in the field that he needed no introduction, and we could look forward to a most interesting morning as a continuation of the most absorbing proceedings of the previous day.
POSTGRADUATE TRAINING FOR A CAREER IN PUBLIC HEALTH By S. L. M O R R I S O N ,
M.B., CH.B., D.P.n.
Professor of Public Health and Social Medicine, University of Edinburgh DlSCUSStONS have been in progress about postgraduate training in public health for many years, in this Society, in the Universities, and in Government Departments, and I do not want to recapitulate these discussions now. Instead, it seemed more useful to tell you what we are thinking in Edinburgh and how we hope to develop postgraduate education there. I shall welcome your criticism and your general reaction to these tentative proposals.
A public health career in the future One of my colleagues in Edinburgh, Professor Norman Hunt, was talking recently about the University's place in management education. He said : "There is a grave danger of failing into the 'practical man fallacy', the practical man being one who continues to make the mistakes of his predecessors except that he does so rather more efficiently. Surely, it is of the essence of management education that it is a preparation not for today but for tomorrow; it should be way out ahead in the lead and not simply retailing the established practices of today--even the best of them. In the light of this, some of the exhortations to the universities to be 'more practical' and less concerned with long-term and fundamental problems of perhaps a highly theoretical kind, are distinctly misplaced." (Hunt, 1965.) Similarly, in postgraduate education for public health, the universities must try to be "away out ahead". If one accepts this point of view, then we face a much more difficult task than simply planning suitable courses for doctors who will work at the jobs now considered to be part of the function of a Public Health Department. May I therefore begin by speculating about the nature of a 280
POSTGRADUATE TRAINING FOR A CAREER IN PUBLIC HEALTH By S. L. M O R R I S O N ,
M.B., CH.B., D.P.n.
Professor of Public Health and Social Medicine, University of Edinburgh DlSCUSStONS have been in progress about postgraduate training in public health for many years, in this Society, in the Universities, and in Government Departments, and I do not want to recapitulate these discussions now. Instead, it seemed more useful to tell you what we are thinking in Edinburgh and how we hope to develop postgraduate education there. I shall welcome your criticism and your general reaction to these tentative proposals.
A public health career in the future One of my colleagues in Edinburgh, Professor Norman Hunt, was talking recently about the University's place in management education. He said : "There is a grave danger of failing into the 'practical man fallacy', the practical man being one who continues to make the mistakes of his predecessors except that he does so rather more efficiently. Surely, it is of the essence of management education that it is a preparation not for today but for tomorrow; it should be way out ahead in the lead and not simply retailing the established practices of today--even the best of them. In the light of this, some of the exhortations to the universities to be 'more practical' and less concerned with long-term and fundamental problems of perhaps a highly theoretical kind, are distinctly misplaced." (Hunt, 1965.) Similarly, in postgraduate education for public health, the universities must try to be "away out ahead". If one accepts this point of view, then we face a much more difficult task than simply planning suitable courses for doctors who will work at the jobs now considered to be part of the function of a Public Health Department. May I therefore begin by speculating about the nature of a 280