subject: What War Does To Minds And Medicine [print this page] What War Does To Minds And Medicine What War Does To Minds And Medicine
You may not realize it, but war has an extremely harmful affect on the field of medicine. Aside from the death of its workers, this vocation bemoans going into something that is not internationally or nationally recognized as a favorable position. It is important for doctors to remain neutral during wars, but they are always physically located with one of the sides, so this makes things dangerous.
If war should occur in the United States, the medical field's two main goals are in defending the nation's health and taking care of the battered and ill, and a higher organization will be required when there are such high demands. There would also be far reaching effects in the United States as well. Many of the local physician groups will lose young members as they are drafted away. Even retired military or reservists may go back to active duty. Solo practitioners will join with larger offices and larger offices will combine into broad groups to facilitate coordination. There will be a new found emphasis on preventing the spread of infectious disease. The past has shown us that we cannot permit extensive sickness to begin where the medical field is overwhelmed enough as it is.
This may bring about the creation of local army service units. The task of cataloging all the American medical schools, and having it organized on paper, has been done. The national guard organization keeps a skeleton group that is run by the medical division in the war department, which is always open to service. The sanitary corps will be in cooperation with the medical professionals. Worried about the most efficient means of advancing good health, both groups are concerned with food purity and available water supplies.
Numerous physicians will set about making innovations in the areas of blood transfusions, toxicology, drug therapies and the like. Because of this fact, there will be many scientific breakthroughs in the medical field thanks to the war. There are certain phenomena that have been observed in war settings that need to be studied like war wound shock, a mania in which men will collapse even though they have suffered almost no noticeable injury at all, so that appropriate task forces can be formed.
Medical teaching will be greatly accelerated. There will be an increasing need for physicians, and more will end up dying. These scenarios may all come into play, if the U.S. should go to war. The importance of some types of research, like war shock, should not be trivialized even if war does not break out.
If scientists were able to work in better conditions, things would be more easily discovered. There would be so many wonderful things to come of the research that came out of the situation, but it would be much better if it didn't have to occur due to the horrible circumstance of war. Of course, a person who survives a previous war can't help but to dread the risk that a current war could pose identically demeaning ethical and intellectual results. Everyone starts out trying to remain optimistic and tries to obtain the facts before jumping off the deep end and bringing down harsh judgment.
Rational thought and behavior finally yielded, as month after month elapsed with all of the various tidal waves of feelings swamping us. We became indifferent to right or wrong and lost concern for facts. Many injustices were rationalized away. We found being hard was a virtue, and being human was a vice. It is uncertain how much damage might result should history repeat itself. The other war instructed us well in at least one fact, we are confidant of that. No one benefits from the insanity that erupts when a war comes upon us.
When the war finally comes to an end, the countries will struggle mightily to rebuild their shattered economies and to repair the image that will undoubtedly have been tarnished across the globe. Of critical importance during that time of rebuilding is to consciously attempt to foster a sense of purposeful, collaborative initiative.
