El Profesor Doctor Hernán Alessandri: su legado para las nuevas generaciones de médicos

Abstract

Professor Alessandri died in 1980. We started our residency in Internal Medicine about 30 years later. Considering the profound changes our society has witnessed, including medical practice, I would like to approach the meaning of his work for our generation. It is not the Father’s figure nor his Aura what inspires us today. Neither is his personality nor his shape. His universality comes from his transcendent image as a teacher. Today’s teachers live rough times, their social status has changed, their professional requirements have grown exponentially, they have to adapt to social phenomena like the Internet and multiculturalism. Being a teacher nowadays demands to be a multifaceted expert. Things have changed since Professor Alessandri made rounds with his patients. But a deeper look allows us to understand that everything returns to where it started: professional deontology of the teacher, never fading but transcendent. We know that Doctor Alessandri had the natural gift to keep faithful to that code with consistency and perseverance. He excelled with integrity in every aspect including professional betterment, constructive work for his institution, collegiality, a warm relationship with students and a model of social values. Beyond virtues and personal defects he will keep on being the mould in which present teachers should be formed, engraved in their souls and in the subconscious of students that seek to learn.