PPP Home

PURPOSES of the AMERICAN MEDICAL STUDENT ASSOCIATION

The Purposes of the American Medical Student Association are:

I.              To promote improvements in health sciences education so that:

A.            medical education is sensitive and responsive to actual  health care needs;

B.            students are treated and trained as individuals interested in health care, not as technicians;

C.            a multiplicity of personal backgrounds and approaches to health care are encouraged;

D.            advances in the biological, natural, and social sciences and their clinical applications are recognized as fundamental to medical progress and crucial to the delivery of quality medical care;

E.             the educational environment fosters growth of the student as an integrated mental, physical and spiritual being;

F.             the education environment is non-biased towards medical students and other health care professionals based on their economic status, political beliefs, race, creed, ethnicity, sexual orientation and gender identity, disability or health status;

G..           creative learning opportunities are provided through experimental, self-directed and interdisciplinary programs;

H.            medical education is more accessible to traditionally underrepresented segments of our society;

I.               the rights, dignity and responsibility of the patient are emphasized;

J.             the medical education process helps foster individual commitment to public service;

K.            the importance of the role of political processes in formulating health care-policy is understood;

L.             there is a deeper understanding of the relationship between pathology and the personal experience of disease;

M.           the ethical and philosophical dilemmas inherent in scientific medical technology are fully and freely explored;

N.            medical education fosters a compassionate understanding of substance abuse problems and mental illness, with a goal toward reducing their stigma in the profession and for the public at large;

O.            students are encouraged to explore global health issues and gain international and cross-cultural health care experience;

P.             students are treated as respected members of the medical school community, with distinct rights and positions of responsibility in that community;

Q.            students are exposed to varying models of health-care delivery and to the trends influencing health care.

II.            Improve health services so that:

A.            quality health-care services are readily available and accessible to all regardless of economic status, political beliefs, race, creed, national origin, age, sex, sexual orientation and gender identity, physical handicap, mental handicap or institutionalization for criminal, medical or psychiatric reasons;

B.            health services provided are responsible to cultural-geographical needs;

C.            health-care planning involves participation by recipients and providers;

D.            resources are allocated such that they promote human rather than technological priorities;

E.             the delivery of health care is reviewed to ensure cost and quality effectiveness;

F.             the patient becomes an informed, active participant in health management;

G.            preventive and longitudinal care are accorded high priority;

H.            health care becomes more personal and holistic in a world of increasing technology and efficiency.