PUBLIC HEALTH, NURSING AND MEDICAL SOCIAL WORK

Abstract

The establishment of the first official school of social work in Brazil marks another development in the health and public welfare field in South America. Since 1939 the government, through the Board of Health and Public Welfare, has maintained several courses in social work, both for professional workers and for volunteers. Now the school is set up, providing for a curriculum of two to three years, depending on the kind of training desired. The school has a three year course for supervisors of social workers and a two-year course for case workers, nutritionists, and puericultores. The last are workers who will deal particularly with problems of child welfare. Students are to be admitted to the school upon graduation from a secondary school. The development of social work as a profession is spreading rapidly in South America and the opening of the new school in Rio de Janeiro marks another milestone. Public Health Courses Have Accredited Standing Public health has become a specialty in the past few decades and therefore the various professions in the public health field have special educational requirements. For example, physicians trained in the clinical branches of medicine who wish to enter a public health career must acquire competence in public health administration (inclusive of maternal and child health), epidemiology, vital statistics, community organization and health education; they must have knowledge of the social and economic factors influencing health, the various environmental factors and their control, the principles of sound industrial hygiene and the current practices in the control of certain specific diseases.