University Hospital

The university hospital aims to meet the training needs of students in the health area, as they enable them to put into practice the techniques they learn in the classroom. However, students are not the only ones benefiting from the initiative.

Hospital is a center for the cure of the sick and the university is an academic center for training. Both spaces can be part of a specific modality: the university hospital.

The historical origin of hospital

From a historical point of view, the first hospitals appeared in the ancient civilizations of India and Egypt, in which the sick and injured people were treated for humanitarian reasons. Later, Greek civilization used shrines and temples to attend to the sick.

In the first centuries of the Christian era, religious orders founded the first hospital centers to accommodate people in need of medical care. In this sense, it should be noted that the words hospital and hospital share the same etymological origin.

The first university hospital

From the 11th century onwards, European cities such as Oxford, Paris and Bologna hosted the first universities. For centuries the academic teaching of medicine remained totally separate from the hospital world. However, in the 18th century, a new scientific mentality was consolidated and for this reason some hospitals in Great Britain allowed medical students to deepen their training in a practical way.

The university learning of future doctors was complemented by patient care in a hospital. In this context, the first physician-researcher programs emerged. The classic separation between universities and hospitals became a new model: the university hospital.

General characteristics of university hospital

These hospital centers are associated with a university. In this way, students of medicine and various paramedical disciplines can learn their profession from real patients.

In them, different protagonists act: medical professionals, doctors in the process of training, students, researchers and academic authorities. The final result can be translated through a triple function : medical care, research and teaching.

In university hospitals, the training process of medical students is supervised. In this way, students who have already surpassed their theoretical and practical training can improve their learning by taking care of hospitalized patients.

Benefits for students

The school-clinics allow students to have access to professional practice with the help of experienced tutors, since all consultations are accompanied by professors. This contributes to the training of young doctors, who leave university with extensive experience in several areas.

In an interview for the website Quero Bolsa , the coordinator of the Physiotherapy course at Faculdade dos Guararapes (UNIFG), Nuno Moreira, explains that these services provide students with the experience of professional practice in three levels of health care: prevention, treatment and rehabilitation.

Another aspect developed is work ethics, because, as future professionals work directly with the public, they experience ethical and moral issues on a daily basis and thus acquire confidence and experience to make the best decisions outside the university.