Preparation of the faculty for career guidance in the medina course: an approach to its current state

Abstract

Introduction: Preparing teachers to provide proper professional guidance is a key part of medical training. Not all teachers have pedagogical training to approach teaching in a comprehensive, holistic manner that includes guiding their students as part of their education. Objective: to assess the readiness of Medicine career teachers to provide student guidance at the FCM “Salvador Allende.” Methods: An exploratory study was conducted to evaluate the preparation of the first three years of the Medicine degree faculty for professional guidance during the 2023 academic year. A survey was developed and validated. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the results. Results: Teachers are unaware of the official documents for professional guidance (76.1%); they stated that professional guidance is only carried out at some educational levels (71.7%); the presence of methodological guidelines in the methodological work plans (80.4%) responded that they did not have them planned; regarding the possibility of teachers providing professional guidance in various medical practice situations and whether they carry it out in teaching practice (56.5%), they rejected this opportunity, while 93.5% of teachers acknowledged that their example impacts students' professional orientation. Conclusions: The research indicates that the teaching staff at FCM “Salvador Allende” is inadequately prepared to provide professional orientation to their students. This is due to the limited coverage of professional orientation in medical education governing documents, which impedes a systematic, coherent, and holistic approach that should promote orientation towards the profession as part of the student's comprehensive training.