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1st appeared
10
May 2000
Socially Responsible Students Awarded For medical students, the time required to study and attend classes and clinical rotations leaves barely enough time to eat and sleep. Yet, UCSF's medical and nursing students have made the UCSF Student Health Professionals for Social Responsibility one of the most outstanding student chapters of Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) in the country. The national PSR organization recognized them last weekend at its annual meeting in Arlington, VA for their efforts working for causes such as environmental health, violence prevention, and health care access. Representatives from the UCSF student chapter received one of nine Broad Street Pump Awards, which are given by PSR every other year to recognize members who exemplify their goal of combining medical knowledge with a sense of responsibility.
The award’s title refers to a water pump that provided drinking water to south London in the 19th century. After an outbreak of cholera in 1854, an anesthesiologist determined that water from the Broad Street pump was causing the outbreak; he then convinced the city’s Board of Guardians to have the pump handle removed. Although the UCSF Student Health Professionals for Social Responsibility (SHPSR) is only a few years old, PSR spokesperson Tarek Rizk said it is one of the most active and well-organized of the 30 student chapters nationwide. "Their chapter has managed to organize numerous events and put together a website that features updated news. Their work has been an inspiration to the larger Bay Area PSR chapter," he said. The UCSF SHPSR has organized a day-long conference on violence and public health, and several events that were part of an initiative on universal access to health care, including a health policy video screening series, and a talk by the health care adviser to Bill Bradley’s presidential campaign. SHPSR has also studied the problem of toxins in hospital waste, and possible alternatives to using these toxic compounds. Working with the organization Health Care Without Harm, the chapter has lobbied for a mercury-free hospital, which the students say can be achieved through the use of alternative medical instruments that do not contain mercury. Finding the time for community activism is difficult, admitted SHPSR president Winston Chiong, but he sees it as a way to maintain balance in his life. "I can’t study all the time, so I tend to go back and forth between the book work and active community work," said the second-year medical student. Chiong said he doesn’t feel too guilty for the time he spends organizing, because of the supportive environment at UCSF. "This is a very welcoming place to pursue social activism and medicine. The faculty and school make a concerted effort to draw the connections between the health of patients and broader issues out in the community, and I see the work we've been doing as a natural extension of that." he said. Links: Source: Kevin Boyd, News Services |
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