As a result of this difference of opinion between GovGuam and
HiComTerPacls and the contemplated transfer of administration to
the Department of the Interior, the Chief of Naval Operations
directed that the matter be held in abeyance.* The Bureau of Medicine and Surgery meanwhile suggested that the whole problem of
training medical and dentalassistants be reviewed by HiComTerPacls
and a definite program for their training and subsequent employment
be formulated. Until this was done, the Bureau recommendedthat
training be conducted by the Public Health Department, Guam, and
the civil administration dispensaries and directed toward the field of
preventive medicine with emphasis on first aid procedures, sanitation,
and insect control.”
The Bureau of Medicine and Surgery’s opinion concerning medical
and dental training for the natives was concurred in by the senior
medical officers at Guam. The Commanding Officer, School of Medical Assistants, considered that the “high plane” of training could be
reduced, and, in May 1950, proposed that medical students receive basic
pre-school training at the Pacific Islands Teacher Training School
(PITTS) and in a two year course at Guam which wouldeliminate
much of training in procedures that they would not have a chance to
practice on their homeislands."
The Commanding Officer. U. S. Naval Medical Center, Guam,
noted that the medical school was a “noble experiment” but that the
curriculum exceeded the capacity of the students to assimilate and
extended beyondthe scope of future employment as “assistants.” He
also pointed out that much of what they learned was useless because of
lack of medical facilities on small islands or because of the nature of
the people with whom they would work: “Teaching of psychiatry
with its redundantclassifications of mental diseases to individuals that
bow to the laws of taboo andothernative superstitions appear super-
fluous.”
The recommendations to lower the “high plane” of the teaching
were not acted upon because planning for the future status of the
school under eventual Department of the Interior administration overWeighed academic disagreements. Because the Naval Medical Center
. CNOItr ser 0022P22 dtd 5 Jul yo.
_ ChBuMedltr ser 00386 dtd 15 Jun 4a.
ot Co, School of Medical Assistants. ltr ser NG(12)/Li-r dtd 10 Jul so.
CO. U.S. Naval Medical Center. Guam. rst end dtd ro Jul 50 on rérd.
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