Cuban Medical Literature - Abstracts
Management in Family Medicine

María del Carmen Amaro Cano

ABSTRACT

The strategic nature of health planning and the tactical nature of health service planning are explained. The fact that both should be based on the social requirements to be met and the real possibilities of satisfying them is emphasized. Care should be given to the characteristics of the manager or director of an institution. The main management techniques related with strategic planning are shown. Attention is drawn to the fact that every management decision made has ethical and social consequences, which affect other people and institutions in different ways. They are subject to ethical criticism, creating dilemmas that fall into the field of moral consciousness . Analysis of every decision using a triple approach - economic, social and ethical - is recommended. Timely and effective assessment of the satisfaction of internal and external users is emphasized, explaining that recognition of the people’s and the community’s right to participate in decision-making regarding problems that concern them, health being one of the most important ones, is obligatory for a manager of excellence. Finally, the ways in which the Family Doctor has to undertake his management duties with the same quality as Family Medicine specialists, are explained. And in the causal analysis of deficiencies, not only material shortages should be borne in mind, but also the manager’s ability or lack thereof, to be a leader of the institution he directs.

Keywords: HEALTH PLANNING/methods; HEALTH SERVICES; STRATEGIC PLANNING; FAMILY DOCTORS; MANAGEMENT CAPACITY; MANAGEMENT

THE AUTHOR

Center for Humanistic Studies at the Service of Medical Sciences

General Calixto García School of Medicine, Havana.

Source:Rev Cubana Med Gen Integr 2003;19(4); http://bvs.sld.cu/revistas/mgi/vol19_4_03/mgisu403.htm

  Scroll Up

Analysis of the Health Situation in Cuba

Félix J. Sansó Soberats, MD

ABSTRACT

The present paper is an essay, in which a summary of the main background information for an analysis of the Cuban health situation is given. The facets that currently characterize this process at the primary level, plus reflections on its development prospects for improving the community health status, are also discussed. Similarly, general guidelines to carry out this analysis at the community level under the guidance of family doctors and nurses are provided, as well as a general methodology for its successful performance with the active participation of the population. Finally, an original concept of this fundamental process is brought forth.

Keywords: PRIMARY HEALTH CARE/standards; FAMILY MEDICINE/standards; COMMUNITY MEDICINE/standards; INTEGRAL HEALTH CARE/standards; FAMILY DOCTORS; HEALTH STATUS; DIAGNOSIS OF THE HEALTH STATUS; CUBA

THE AUTHOR

2nd Degree Specialist in Comprehensive General Medicine, Higher Institute of Medical Sciences, Havana.

Source: Rev Cubana Salud Pública 2003;29(3):260-7; http://bvs.sld.cu/revistas/spu/vol29_3_03/spu10303.htm

  Scroll Up

Nutritional Support in Primary Health Care

Susana Pineda Pérez, MD

ABSTRACT

Energetic nutritional undernourishment is a current problem in many hospitalized and ambulatory patients with a prolonged disease course. In many cases, it becomes worse due to various factors, such as reduced food uptake, increase of the losses, higher metabolic expense and occasional long fasting. In the last decades, nutritional support is a priority among those measures enabling longer survival and an improvement in quality of life. New ideas on patient care and rehabilitation at home, coupled with family support and joint work with the corresponding health teams, present possibilities for the use of nutritional support. Notwithstanding the demonstrated evidence on the need for its use, a more systematic application is necessary to specify how it should be used. For this reason, some issues related with the significance of nutritional evaluation, indication and the parenteral or enteric route for administration of the support are presented. The development of a strategy for using nutritional support in PHC is proposed.

Keywords: NUTRITIONAL STATUS; NUTRITIONAL EVALUATION; PRIMARY HEALTH CARE; ENTERIC NUTRITION; PARENTERAL NUTRITION

THE AUTHOR

Second Degree Specialist in Pediatrics, Professor, Comandante Manuel Fajardo School of Medical Sciences, Havana.

Source: Rev Cubana Med Gen Integr 2003;19(3); http://bvs.sld.cu/revistas/mgi/vol19_3_03/mgi03303.htm

  Scroll Up

Silvia Martínez Calvo, MD, PhD

ABSTRACT

The concept of primary health care (PHC) is analyzed. The basic activities stated in the classic Declaration of Alma-Ata are presented, together with a brief epidemiological assessment of these activities and their application by the family doctor’s health team. Their task has strengthened throughout the last 10 years - preferentially and paradoxically - in undertaking control programs without criticism, which tends to distort their social assignment. Under the current circumstances of the national health system, the topic intends to stimulate options that will absolutely reform it, such as those that aim at redirecting the work of the Family Doctor and the Family Nurse, essentially sustained in PHC.

Keywords: PRIMARY HEALTH CARE; EPIDEMIOLOGY; FAMILY DOCTORS; NURSING IN COMMUNITY HEALTH; HEALTH PLANS AND PROGRAMS

THE AUTHOR

Doctor in Medical Sciences, Consulting Professor, National School of Public Health, Havana.

Source: Rev Cubana Med Gen Integr 2003;19(1); http://bvs.sld.cu/revistas/mgi/vol19_1_03/mgi11103.htm

  Scroll Up

A Gender Approach to Health.
Importance and Application to Primary Health Care

Maria Clarivel Presno Labrador* and Ileana E. Castañeda Abascal**

ABSTRACT

Using a gender approach to health makes it possible to visualize inequalities between women and men, thereby acting in accordance with their respective health needs. A documentary analysis was undertaken to explain the theoretical foundations and gender socialization of this approach, as well as its manifestation in different stages in life and living conditions. The usefulness of indicators to identify differences between the two sexes, as well as other procedures used to this end, are also discussed.

Keywords:SEXUAL IDENTITY; SEXUAL CHARACTERISTICS; EQUITY; HEALTH EQUITY; WOMEN

THE AUTHORS

*Second Degree Specialist in General Comprehensive Medicine, MsC in Public Health, Professor at the National School of Public Health

**Second Degree Specialist in Biostatistics, MsC in Public Health, Professor at the National School of Public Health

Source: Rev Cubana Med Gen Integr 2003 ;19(3) http://bvs.sld.cu/revistas/mgi/vol19_3_03/mgisu303.htm