This 1998 updated reprint of the sixth edition in English is
being published shortly before the thirtieth anniversary of the Handbook. The
first edition was prepared in 1969 on the basis of the first educational
workshop organized by the WHO Regional Office for Africa in Brazzaville.
Initially, the Handbook was widely used in the African Region, and has since
served as the main textbook for numerous WHO-sponsored workshops attended by
over 4000 participants in different parts of the world. Thanks to the
constructive comments of many users, the Handbook has become a collective work
and has been translated into 15 languages.
During the past three decades the presentation and content of
the Handbook have evolved, but its basic principles have remained the same:
community-oriented education, directed at individuals and population
groups and taking their health needs into account; learner-centred
education, keeping the learners in an active situation and gradually helping
them to become the architects of their own learning so that they become and
remain competent for their professional role.
The application of these two principles has been particularly
reinforced in this updated version. Relevance to the priority health needs of
the population has been stressed in the first chapter. Problem-based learning
has been described in some detail in the third chapter. Over 55 new pages and
several new exercises have been added.
This Handbook is now entering a new phase. I am convinced that
the time is ripe for the preparation of adaptations to national and to specific
professional situations. The Handbook has hitherto aimed to address the needs of
educators for the health professions in any part of the world equally well. But
it is clear that health care and the services provided by health professionals
of all kinds are strongly influenced by the specific local situation.
Adaptations of the Handbook can be made only through the
initiatives and efforts of leading educators in the health professions in
different countries. Several possibilities exist. The adaptation to a national,
regional or other type of local situation could include maps, epidemiological,
economic or other data, national health plans, etc., as well as exercises
directly related to the specific local situation. Such an adaptation has
recently been prepared in Spain. An adaptation for a given profession, e.g.,
nursing, nutrition, or social work, could contain exercises directly related to
the specific profession, together with additional relevant information, as
needed, all of which would form a supplement to the Handbook in its current
form. Such an adaptation is now being planned in Italy for the nursing
profession. The Nutrition Unit of WHO in Geneva has produced an adaptation of
the Handbook for nutritionists. Anyone interested in such initiatives should
write to the author, care of the Office of Publications, World Health
Organization, 1211 Geneva 27, Switzerland.
J.-J. Guilbert
Geneva
Switzerland
