The Costa Rican Social Security Fund (CCSS) and the University of Costa Rica (UCR) are engaged in an argument on the training of health professionals in the country.
The UCR complaints about the CCSS’ decision to eliminate the test to be performed by medical students in their final year of study, to opt for an internship in the specialization of their choosing in public hospitals.
Instead of the test, the Board of the CCSS decided to make a raffle of the quotas.
The measure is questioned by the President of the university, Henning Jensen, and the Dean of medicine, Luis Bernardo Villalobos; and supported by Sandra Rodríguez, director of the Center for Strategic Development and Information on Health and Social Security (CENDEISSS), who used to coordinate the test.
Jensen said that removing the test also eliminates the filter that ensured evaluation and quality of students of medicine, pharmacy and microbiology in their final year.
Villalobos said
it is a setback in the country’s history because it leaves Costa Ricans helpless.”
Rodríguez, on the other hand, explained the test was no longer a filter to opt for an internship, since 98% of students have passed the examination in the last five years.
She also rejected the argument that the decision violates the formation of good professionals and said that universities are responsible for this.