En la Lima colonial, los mulatos libres y otras castas se hicieron imprescindibles como barberos y cirujanos a tal punto que esos oficios se volvieron casi exclusivos de ellos. La universidad impidió que obtuviesen grados por la nota de infamia que llevaban en sí, pero esto no fue un obstáculo para que algunos se formaran libremente en los hospitales donde se enseñaba al que quisiera aprender y trabajar como barbero o cirujano, bajo la dirección de los médicos. De esta manera, muchos mulatos lograron ejercer el oficio en virtud de haber superado los exámenes que se realizaban en el cabildo. Solo uno, el mulato José Manuel Valdés, logró permiso real para sacar su grado en la Universidad de San Marcos en 1795, pero ya para entonces los requerimientos eran menos severos y se había franqueado el camino para que los miembros de las castas pudiesen ejercer trabajos anteriormente vedados a ellas.

Este manual ha contribuido, y esperamos que siga haciéndolo, tanto a la obtención del título de Técnico en Cuidados Auxiliares de Enfermería como a la de Técnico en Atención a Personas en Situación de Dependencia. Asimismo, ha servido de apoyo fundamental en la preparación de oposiciones para optar a un puesto de trabajo en el Sistema de Salud (ya sea este en la administración central, en la autonómica o en la provincial).

This dissertation analyzes health human capital issues in developing countries. The first two essays examine the production of human capital at the household level, and the third essay analyzes supply of health care services. The first essay tests for noncooperative behavior using the Mexican Family Life Survey (MXFLS), a nationally representative longitudinal survey of households that identifies and keeps track of local and international migrants. Migration introduces asymmetries of information that might trigger noncooperative behavior of spouses left behind. I use the MXFLS to study noncooperative behavior in Mexican households and the way this behavior and effects children's human capital. I find that migration causes noncooperative behavior in the spouse left behind, namely spouses reduce the time in doing chores and do not change their labor supply. At the same time, boys do more agricultural work and girls have to spend more time in taking care of other members. Migration positively affects school enrollment, but nonlinear e effects suggest younger children are bearing most of the negative effect because, as the literature suggests, lower school enrollment at early ages means lower cognitive achievement later on. In the second essay I analyze production of health in Chinese children. Modernization and subsequent changes in lifestyle have caused a dramatic increase in prevalence of obesity in China. Since obesity is one of the main forces driving noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), increases in prevalence of obesity in children lead to higher incidence of NCDs and reduction in health human capital. Intervention in public policy must be based on an understanding of how health is produced in the household. I use the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) to carry out structural estimation of the health production function for children in China. Results suggest that calorie intake is the most important input in the production of excessive weight with an impact on weight three times larger than sedentary activities and six times larger than physical activities. Calorie intake also has a more than proportional effect on unhealthy extra weight. These results suggest that public health policies must focus on reducing excessive calorie intake. The third essay studies subsidies for public hospitals in Colombia. Health services in Colombia are provided by public and private hospitals that, by law, must compete with one another in a perfectly competitive environment. However, by constitutional mandate, public hospitals must guarantee health care for all - even in municipalities where market conditions cannot sustain a hospital and government subsidization is required. The subsidy should provide the hospital enough solvencies to operate as well as incentives to be efficient. I propose a method to estimate subsidies for public hospitals. The method combines measures of efficiency derived from cost frontiers and production frontiers. Estimations for 2008 suggest an aggregate subsidy of $4869.2 MM Colombian pesos. Also, the proportion of costs that must be subsidized is lower for hospitals that offer more complex health services.

Introduction: The objective of this article was to explore, from an anthropological perspective, the social representations that doctors who treat covid-19 in specialized hospitals in Mexico City have, regarding the relationship between their professional performance and the deterioration of their mental health; as well as their social representations of the existing institutional resources to provide them mental health attention and their care-seeking and self-care strategies. Materials and Methods: For this, a qualitative investigation was carried out with semi-structured interviews with 35 doctors who treat covid-19. Results: From the points of view of the doctors, various sociocultural and structural causes of mental illness related to their professional performance are documented and analyzed, as well as their representations about the inadequacy and/or ineffectiveness of the institution, group, or individual resources to provide them mental health attention; and some allopathic and non-biomedical forms of care-seeking and self-care. Conclusions: Recommendations are made to address the etiologies of the disease analyzed in a culturally and structurally appropriate way to the context of the pandemic.