Articles

Quality, premise of the post-COVID-19 teaching process

Juan Manuel Lemus Quintana^{1  *} 
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5426-0578

²Rector of Pinar del Rio University of Medical Sciences, Cuba

Dear Readers:

SARS-CoV-2 pandemic activated the scientists, health-care providers and the whole society all over the world, for the contribution of incredible efforts in many countries. Cuba, trained in giving firmly and humanistic responses in order to take advantage of its resources, based on equity and protection of the most vulnerable demographic segments, has not been unaware of this situation, and shows its capacity of solidarity to share what it has, which includes its human capital and experience, with those who request these services, always protecting our own population.

Medical Education resumes the academic year in conditions that guarantee the teaching-learning process and that courses according to the teaching schedule, in each scenario, with the adaptation to the “new times of COVID-19” with the organization, good practices and the strict compliance of the hygienic measures, imposed by the epidemiological situation, and the teaching staff is conscious of the responsibilities, now more than ever, in monitoring the quality processes in an university endorsed by the institutional certification it holds.

Having achieved the purpose of guaranteeing the process of completion of the academic year 2019-2020 as it was planned; readjustment of accommodation capacities and where the undergraduate coverage in municipal teaching scenarios is extended, intended for the continuity of going forward with the expected impact of the benefit of quality healthcare to the local population.

The integration of students of Medical Sciences to the teaching-learning activities as far as the training scenarios in the territories are arranged in a decentralized way, always in accordance with the epidemiological situation and the number of students in the classroom activities, practices in the services, and the availability of the teaching staff in correspondence with the subjects, will allow their development according to the scheduled teaching organization, in the necessary time to overcome their training objectives, which will ensure the performance of an academic course with the quality required for its satisfactory completion.

In the current circumstances, it is impossible to ignore the satisfaction of the professors and directors of the healthcare system in the province, in view of the response of their graduates when integrating the medical brigades of Henry Reeve International Contingent, to collaborate with brother peoples, together with the incorporation to these tasks in several countries, of graduates of other nationalities trained in our classrooms as an commendable retribution of the work initiated by the Historical Leader of the Revolution to settle our debt with the peoples of the world.

The behavior and the results achieved by the undergraduate students in the teams for coping with the pandemic in the active surveys, of the numerous volunteers in the assurances in centers assigned for isolation or in the tasks of services to the most vulnerable, has been one of the demonstrative classes of high qualification that the teaching staff evaluates as part of the development of a formative, innovative and pertinent teaching-learning process as an adequate response for the time of this pandemic.

The recognition by the peoples of the world of the selfless work that our doctors and other healthcare workers have been doing outside the country, and on many occasions in places of extreme need of medical assistance or due to the nonexistence of healthcare personnel, surpasses any candidature for an award, which, proposed by numerous institutions, countries, personalities and authorities from all continents, is a sign of the prestige achieved and enjoyed by Cuban public healthcare services, convinced that it is the greatest gratitude that comforts our committed healthcare workers, who return more encouraged to continue moving forward the quality of services for their people.

The new academic year will not be a usual challenge; the legacy treasured by our patriots in years of struggle to survive the blockades overcome with abnegation, together with the innovative proof of a responsible society, who will overcome the pandemic to move forward convinced of achieving the desired purposes, such as a superior academic year that is opening

Received: October 19, 2020; Accepted: October 21, 2020

^* [e-mail]