Covid-19 and Ukrainian Crisis Exponentiates the Need for the Inclusion of Conflict and Disaster Medicine in Medical Curriculum

Nityanand Jain (Corresponding Author), Sakshi Prasad, Alina Bordeniuc, Andrei Tanasov, Chun Pong Cheuk, Deepkanwar Singh Panag, Dorota S Wia Tek, Emilia Platos, Marta Maria Betka, Simone Oliver Senica, Shiv Patel, Zsófia Csenge Czárth, Shivani Jain, Aigars Reinis

Research output: Contribution to journalComment/debate

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Abstract

Conflict medicine is an age-old branch of medicine which focuses on delivering healthcare services to the injured in the setting of conflicts, wars, disasters, and/or other calamities. The course in its purest form has been traditionally given only in military medical schools while civilian medical students are usually taught parts of the course in other overlapping subjects like surgery, infectious diseases, etc. However, in a crisis situation, civilian doctors are expected to double up as military doctors, which leads to emotional, mental, and physical stress for the civilian doctors along with logistical and organizational challenges. The current Covid-19 pandemic and the Russo-Ukrainian conflict have highlighted once again the emergent need for the implementation of conflict medicine courses in regular medical curricula, so as to make the medical students situation-ready. With our present discussion, we aim to provide a brief overview of the course, its core modules, challenges to its implementation, and possible solutions. We believe that the complex management skills gained by this course are not only useful in conflict scenario but are also valuable in managing day-to-day medical emergencies.

Original languageEnglish
Article number23821205221096347
Pages (from-to)1-3
Number of pages3
JournalJournal of medical education and curricular development
Volume9
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Apr 2022

Keywords*

  • Ukraine
  • conflict medicine
  • crisis
  • disaster
  • medical education
  • medicine

Field of Science*

  • 3.3 Health sciences
  • 5.3 Educational sciences

Publication Type*

  • 1.1. Scientific article indexed in Web of Science and/or Scopus database

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