MountCrest to stress positive attitude in medical training, practice

The MountCrest University College (MCU) is collaborating with Penn State College of Medicine in the US, not only to become the first private university in Ghana to offer medical training, but also aspiring to introduce humanism in medical training.

The MCU’s medical training programme is scheduled to begin next January.

The initiative is expected to help shape the attitude of a generation of doctors to impact positively on healthcare in the country.

“It’s about the attitude of clinicians. The doctors and nurses really need to be inspired to help change the face of healthcare in Ghana,” the Director of the Global Health Centre at Penn State College of Medicine, Prof N. Benjamin Fredrick, said in Accra.

“The founder and the dean of the medical school really have great vision for producing humane physicians; physicians who respect patients and value patients’ opinions. And that is a very exciting vision that we are looking forward to being part of,” Prof Fredrick said.

 
Penn State delegation
Prof Fredrick was part of a four-member delegation of professors from the Penn State Medical College who visited Ghana recently to apprise themselves of preparations being made by MCU to roll out its medical programme.

The other members of the delegation were Prof Therese M. Wolpaw, Vice Dean for Educational Affairs; Prof Daniel R. Wolpaw, Vice Chair for Educational Affairs and Director, Kienle Centre for Humanistic Medicine; and Prof Wenke Hwang, Associate Director, Master of Public Health Programme.

Their visit was a follow-up to a similar one by the management of MCU to the US to learn about how Penn State incorporated humanism into its medical training curriculum.

“We were very impressed with the leadership of MountCrest University College to visit Penn State to find out how we incorporated humanism in our medical programme,” Prof. Frederick told the Daily Graphic at a dinner organised by the founder of MountCrest in honour of the delegation.

The delegation had earlier visited MCU’s main campus at Larteh in the Eastern Region, where construction works on the medical school buildings are underway.

 Prof. Fredrick said the visit to Ghana was an exploratory one “for us to see what MountCrest is doing to take all this information back and discuss with our colleagues and to find out what is the best ways possible that we can envision collaborating with MountCrest University.”

“I think there is a lot of opportunity. Our medical school in Pennsylvania is the first medical school in the United States to include the humanity department in order to train doctors and clinicians who are working in various parts of the world to ensure that mission is carried out,” he added.

 
Collaboration
Prof. Wolpaw said the collaboration with MountCrest was very laudable because it would help expand the scope of humanism in medical training.

“We feel it’s critically important to increase our effort at developing individuals and all levels of medical training,” he said.

The initiative, according to the founder of MCU, Mr Kwaku Ansa-Asare, was based on the dearth of humanism in medical practice in the country and the need to imbue medical trainees with such discipline.

The founding dean of the MCU Medical School, Dr Samuel Akortey Akor, observed that the standard of care practice in the medical profession had fallen and so the step taken by MCU was in the right direction.

“This is an opportunity to demonstrate what it takes to do it. It’s an opportunity to change the system. Attitude doesn’t need any resource; it’s how you relate with your patient,” he said.

 
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