Natural and Traditional Medicine in Medical Training: The Need for Effective Curricular Integration

Abstract

Traditional and Natural Medicine (TNM) has been a cross-cutting curricular strategy in Cuban medical training since Study Plan E, in accordance with the national health policy that promotes comprehensive care with a preventive and humanistic approach. However, shortcomings persist in its practical implementation, particularly in clinical subjects such as Orthopedics and Traumatology, where TNM is addressed in a marginal, descriptive manner, disconnected from actual clinical practice. This opinion piece critically analyzes this problem and argues for the need to move beyond traditional pedagogical approaches by systematizing developmental teaching tasks in workshop classes. It posits that the workshop class, as a teaching method that prioritizes reflective learning and the resolution of professional problems, is the ideal setting for integrating TNM. However, its effectiveness depends on the design of task systems that develop cognitive independence, structured according to principles of systematicity and progressive complexity. The international scientific evidence supporting modalities such as acupuncture, ozone therapy, and phytotherapy in osteomyoarticular pathologies contrasts with the outdated curriculum that limits their teaching. It is concluded that the implementation of developmental teaching task systems, grounded in the sociocultural theory of learning, allows for the training of physicians capable of rationally integrating Traditional and Natural Medicine (TNM) into their clinical practice as a component of a comprehensive care model.