[A certificate of proficiency in community health methods adapted to a tropical milieu]

The authors report on their 4 years of experience and research in education and training of medical doctors, nurses and male nurses, in the field of community health methodology in developing countries. They start from the fact, widely recognized by national and international organizations (W.H.O.), that improvement of health status of a population demands some other activities than curative ones, i.e. comprehensive knowledge of its social and cultural environment, evaluation of its health status, organization and management of the health services, clearly defined and fully observed collaboration between various partners, population, professionals, politicians. Neither medical doctors nor nurses and male nurses have been taught and trained in these fields. The authors suggest a part-time course of three months, built round the learning of methods and techniques of socioethnology, economics, epidemiology, management of services, and communication. Taking into account the pecularities of the audiences (foreigners, or nationals), the authors propose a pedagogical pattern based on the experience of the participants, both in simulated situation (case studies) or in actual situation (survey and setting-up of a program in a community).