NationStates Jolt Archive

Description: Being as the world is short of the much needed educated medical personnel, it would be to the boon of the international community at large and the individual nations in particular for there to be complimentary medical training along all levels of advancement.

Any individual from any nation who wishes to train him or herself in the medical field should be able to do so free of charge. In return for this subsidy, they must pledge a certain amount of working time after their training is complete.
Free Medical Training Act

CPR/First Aid Training should be taught to anyone willing to learn with no necessary pledge for future service.
Full subsidy for EMT training should come out to 18 months of pledged time to working as an Emergency Medical Technician.
Paramedic training is to pledge three years of service.
Nursing training is to pledge six years service.
Cost of training will be proportional to pledged service time. With the maximum time for pledged service to not exceed 20 years. MD training, for example, need only pledge an amount of 20 years service.

Individuals may work longer than the pledged time, but they are not required to.

This will help put more trained medical personnel per capita and keep the citizens of every nation healthier and better for it.

This proposal is on the list now. It is awaiting the proper number of approvals. The health the people of your nations is at stake.

I support this and everything having to do with CPR, u know what I mean

I am sorry to have to say this, but I don't think that this would be a very good idea. I am in fact an EMT-Basic, now going through the Paramedic course, and while it would definitely have been nice to not have to pay the $1,200 for the EMT-B course + $40 licensing fees or the $8,000 for the Paramedic course, I can't see how this would be a good idea to provide free training for simply anyone who wanted to go into medicine. Perhaps a scholarship-type incentive for entry into the medical field, or what the U.S. Armed Forces do with the Montgomery G.I. Bill (MGIB): by enlisting for 4 yrs (min), the military will pay out a set monetary amount (it was $15K when I was in the Navy) strictly for college (but it could be for any school-facility in this case), to be used after the 4 year term of enlistment was over.

Free education is fine for grades K-12, as it is in the U.S. and many other nations (IRL of course), but once you get into higher education, you have to think about who the teachers of this education are, and how much you're willing to pay them to teach these people. They are certainly not going to teach for free--you get what you pay for, remember--and especially in health care, you (most ppl anyway) would prefer someone with quality training. Learning emergency prehospital care skills in the ALS (Advanced Life Support) arena (paramedics) is not something that you want to throw money away on, as the training is not cheap.

Now, there are programs out there similar to what you describe, but I have only seen it used for the EMT-B level when the EMT is a firefighter, and is reimbursed for the cost of the course; or also for some Nursing programs, where a hospital will sponsor a student and pay for the education as long as they commit to a certain # of years service once they become an RN.

For something as simple as CPR training, as Vuhifell brought up, I do believe that this can be taught as a community service, or even require citizens to learn, and then have all citizens have the duty-to-act if the skill is needed anywhere they may be. CPR is not a difficult thing to learn, you can do it in an afternoon, or maybe a couple of days, depending on how quick of a study you are.

As far as the more advanced medical training, as becoming a doctor would be "advanced", I think that a scholarship-based payment method would be the best--if the would-be med student is smart enough to get the scholarship, then they deserve the training. After spending the half-dozen years or so it takes to get through med school, I think it would be obvious that they will be going into that career, and probably for many years at that--that's not something people just let slip away.

Ok, I've rambled on far too long. Let me know what your thoughts are on what I've said; I don't always check the forums, so send me a telegram to be redundant if you would.

Grenden, Empire of Grenden

In the proposal there is a deal of give and take involved. They do pledge a certain amount of service time once they complete their education. The purpose is aimed so that those who want to do helpful healthcare work are not restricted from doing so merely because they're not born independently wealthy.

I got this idea from the organization I work through, where they'll pay for EMT-Basic training, minus $100 for equipment, in return for 18 months volunteer EMT service.

The people aren't teaching for free, they would be getting paid by the government. Or at least subsidized along with private payment.

Also, getting a scholarship-type situation was what the proposal was making. The individual medical schools can keep the same standards of application, but once the student gets into the school, he need not pay the very large tuition costs. His tuition will be subsidized by government monies.

I think there aren't enough phrenologists in the world

alright dont go all ridy on my arse

The proposal does have some good and bad aspects as has been pointed out already. Now, what I am concerned about is how this would affect the black market and back alley medical personnel that is something that is very real.

It just seems to me that there would be those that would take the training to use it for more underhanded means. Look at the countries that don't allow organ donations. (such as mine) The poor would go to someone who has had the surgeon training to have, let's say, a kidney removed.

The kidney would be sold to the highest bidder. The owner of the kidney would have to get the higgest bid just to pay off the surgeon and still have something left over for all their troubles. How could this be prevented?

Kyotonia

"Now, what I am concerned about is how this would affect the black market and back alley medical personnel that is something that is very real."

There are doctors who pay for their education and do these things too. You're argument then comes down to that if there are more net doctors, there will be more bad doctors too. However, there will also be many more good doctors that would outnumber them.

The cost of more bad doctors running around seems worth the benefit of many more good doctors doing what they do best.

You can crack down on these illegal medical dealings like any other way you fight crime. More policemen, preventative laws, tougher punishments, etc.

So, how is this going to be funded: organ "donations" and the subsequent sale?