CAMAGÜEY.- The professional life of Dr. María del Carmen Romero Sánchez, specialist of 1st. and 2nd. Degree in Comprehensive General Medicine (MGI), Master in Satisfactory Longevity and Medical Education, and Assistant and Consultant Professor, has been full of challenges since its inception. When she graduated from medical school in 1984 she was one of the seven ones selected for the start of the Family Physician Program in Camagüey.

- How did you receive this choice?

—The reality is that it was something uncertain, unknown, of course because of novel in itself, besides, all my training had been in another way and with the reference of secondary health care, that is, to the level of hospitals.

“The seven of us were located in the Ignacio Agramonte Health area in offices that did not yet have their homes. In my case I was located in the Office Number One on Coronel Labrada street, near the old Pijuán soft drink factory and I was there for eight years. It's incredible that even now many of the people I attended remember me and greet me with much sweetness, even recently I was in exam board and we were evaluating a student who was the granddaughter of a patient I had at that time and I attended her mother's pregnancy. That is gratifying.

“It was a very beautiful time, that direct link with the population was special, at that time we worked with the 120 families, with around about 540 inhabitants. The Program was conceived to serve families comprehensively. I worked in the morning in consultation and every afternoon I did home visits, and in what was called sliding once a month a week I worked at night and weekend and thus those who worked are not unprotected.

“We began to complete the vaccination schedule for these people, the organic cytology of women, we imparted health education in a virgin population in that sense and diverse at the same time by age groups and we maintained a direct link with the nearby pharmacy "

- "What other news do you remember?"

—For example, the creation of circles for grandparents, those for pregnant women and I can say that we had a nice reception from the population, who at the same time attended us, gave us love and a lot of support. They are very pleasant memories, care for pregnant women and children was vital, one was able to identify health risks in these people, we took care of them and also we intervene in dysfunctional families.

“During that stage, in 1986, my daughter was born —the first of my two babies - she had already done the first year of familiarization and all three of specialization in Comprehensive General Medicine (MGI) from the same office because on Wednesday afternoons we received preparation lessons at the polyclinic and there they gave us support with the interconsultations that we needed.

“The messenger brought us the results of the complementary analyzes to that we did not have to move, the sterile material, the request for medications and thus we did not move from the office. There I started together with Nurse Olga Cuevas, who did her undergraduate degree while working".

-"And after those eight years?"

—In 1992 and for a year I joined the Basic Work Group (GBT) because it was decided to place an MGI as coordinator, since before it was only the pediatrician, the obstetrician, the clinician and the psychologist. My second child was born and I was proposed to rejoin by the teaching department of the polyclinic Ignacio Agramonte where Dr. Josefina Collot was as director since the start of the Program.

"At that time there was coverage with 41 offices of the Physician of Family and later when the city was divided into districts part of those clinics went to the José Martí Health area (Center) and another to the Finlay.

“In those clinics residents were trained and we had the Medicine students. The need arose to have someone who was in charge of teaching from the polyclinic and assumed the direction of it in 1997 where I stayed for ten years and always linked to Primary Care of Health, the medical guard, the consultation of menstrual regulation and where I was needed, as in rural areas, once a week ”.

—I remember that you and Dr. Alina León de la Torre were the first to reach the 2nd Degree in MGI in the province, what was derived from that determination?

—Indeed, that happened in 1999 and the exam was being carried out then in Havana and in 2000 we both became Assistant Professors and we started as a tribunal for the MGI of that category, of which I have been the president during all these years. In its beginnings it was territorial in nature, we served Camagüey, Ciego de Ávila and Las Tunas ”.

-"Have you completed an internationalist mission?"

—The first in 2006, I went to attend teaching in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela as an itinerant for three months and they became nine, there it had to do with the Sociomedical subjects of the Program Comprehensive Community Medicine that began and was in the states of Zulia, Falcón and Lara, just to mention a few. Then I will refer to the second mission.

-"And on your return?"

—I was given the task of starting as Rector of the University of Medical Sciences Carlos J. Finlay and I was in that position from 2008 to 2018.

That was a huge challenge because my link with teaching was from attendance. It was a hard and rewarding work. I had to get that the cloister of Professors of so many years of that House of High Studies I identified, something that with a good team I achieved, I confess that I dedicated myself with love and dedication to those years and I always continued to be a faithful defender of Primary Health Care, because I was also an examining board for the rotation and graduation from MGI and with very sensitive community projects.

—What should characterize those who are in charge of the formation of healthcare professionals?

—Undoubtedly to the training of doctors and health professionals in general you have to give your heart, hence the importance of those ten years of my life, and I enjoyed them. When you empathize with students identify you and welcome you with great affection and that satisfies ”.

—It is necessary to know, what came after those ten years?

—At the end of that ten-year task, the Minister of Public Health proposed me to be the national director of teaching for the Cuban Medical Mission in Venezuela, and I was in Caracas for 38 months, we lived there; however, I practically traveled to the 24 states of that nation and in each I found some of those doctors who were students and when they identified me, they told me: ‘Profe’, and that’s very nice, and that they tell you that his title is signed by you, it is flattering, in the extreme.

“Apart from coordinating Cuban teaching, she did it with the link with the University of Health Sciences that was founded in 2016 and is where they are graduates of the integral community doctors of that country, which already add up to more than 28,000 graduates. In any case, the Cuban mission is the one that plans the course, the methodological documents, the exams, the qualification and control of the secretariat notes for the whole country. I work hard and always under the precept of defending training with quality".

—The appearance of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus that causes COVID-19 surprised you in Venezuela?

—That was the case and despite personal care and the permanent demand on we got that disease, it was inevitable. I was positive in August 2020, I was admitted for more than a week in the Center for Comprehensive Diagnosis (CDI) Montalván where they attended to the collaborators and I received the treatment registered in the Cuban protocol. It was very difficult to go through the illness and especially the recovery.

“Since the beginning of the pandemic we have been working on a training system aimed at collaborators of all profiles and each one from his own occupational and in the ventilation of patients because the equipment technician was there, but were trained by therapy specialists intensive and internal courses and a theoretical-practical course was designed for professionals of the 573 CDIs in the country, undoubtedly an arduous work and systematically through videoconferences also with the Central Unit of Medical Collaboration of the Ministry of Public Health of Cuba and we received the medicines from our country to be used in our collaborators.

"We also kept the surveys that the Center for Molecular Immunology (CIM) required to accredit the necessary medications. In July 2020 I had to support the direction of the Miranda state for more than 15 days because some collaborators were sick ”.

Already in her Camagüey, this simple and talented woman, with a slow speech and perfect and motivated to study Medicine by her brother, nine years her senior, she continues to face challenges and contribute her knowledge to her Medical University ...

"I work in the Department of Public Health at the Faculty of Medicine of the Medical University and as it is never finished I prepare for the exam of Second Degree specialist in Health Administration and it is another challenge that I have imposed myself ”.

Just a few hours ago we learned that due to her excellent professional career, Professor María del Carmen Romero Sánchez was awarded with the Jesús Menéndez medal, another reason for congratulations on Latin American Medicine.

Translated by Linet Acuña Quilez