Articles

RE-ORIENTATION OF UNDERGRADUATE MEDICAL SYLLABI TO SUIT THE CHANGING NEEDS

Dr. J. PRRAKASA RAO (Batch of 62)

Professor & head of the Dept. of Physiology

Christian Medical College

Vellore.

The word syllabusn connotes a body of knowledge that a student should be familiar with to carry out his professional activity. Since the professional activity of the medical student will be maily to practise medicine in a segment of society influence the knowledge that a medical student should acquire. Major advances through and the need to delete obsolete information will also influenced the content.

            While the need for greater co-ordination between medical practice has beenb stressed at world summit on Medical Educastion and at the Global conference on Medical Education and Medical prractice, the methodology to be adopted to strengthen such linkage has nbot been formulted. I would like to suggest a few ways by which suitably re-orientation of syllabi can be performed to achieve this goal.

            Firstly, the priorities of healthcare in the segment of society to be served by the graduates of the Medical College should clearly identified. Prevalence of disease, age and tender of the population lebvel of development of the area and educational status of the people must be taken into account. In the state of Andhra pradesh it is well nown that certain diseases prevail in certain areas, like for example, Yaws intriblas of northern districts. In several urban areas, the ageing population is increasing demanding special care. Educated members of the society ar increasingly seeking legal redressal for alleged profession misconduct. There is thus a need to include all these aspects in re-orientation of undergraduate syllabus, inorder to promote competence the ability to adapt to change, reason critically and continue learning .

            The re-orientation process must also aim at providing the appropriate environment during the period of learning. A doctor’s daily work consists of solving the problems o the patients or the groups in the community. Hence a problem oriented sealing is most appropriate method of learning. Simulation of situations like mofk epidemic or disaster relief would be helpful to the student ot ope up with such situation in real life. Such an approach will result in integration of subjects, which are otherwise taught individually in the Medical College. Computers can play significant role in this aspect. Real life situations can be presented to the learner and the evaluated. Small group teaching can also be facilitated by the computer.

            Research is one of the neglected areas of medical education in our country. Medical students should be exposed to resource methodology training to improve their skills of scientific evaluation. They should be encouraged to undertake small research projects. Journal reading must be encouraged and the journals should be made available at subsidies rated to the students. The learning process must continue even after a student leaves the institution after graduation. The need for continuing education should be emphasized in the undergraduates curriculum so that proffer attitudes towards CME programs may be inculcated into the students.

            In order to deliver proper health care the doctor must acts as a leading member of the health team, interacting and encouraging other medical, paramedical and nursing professionals. Acquisition of managerial skills therefore needs to be part of the curriculum for preparation of medical students for their future tasks.