After its decision to shorten the duration of the MBBS course by one year met with stiff opposition from all the quarters, Medical Council of India is now contemplating to introduce a new degree course in rural healthcare. Patricia Mascarenhas finds out more.
The Medical Council of India (MCI) is contemplating to introduce a new course in rural healthcare in a bid to find a solution to the perennial scarcity of trained health workers in its villages. “Armed with a BSc degree in rural health, these trained individuals will be working under or assisting a doctor in rural areas. But they won't be able to practice or prescribe medicines on their own,” says Dr Shivkumar Utture, executive member, Maharashtra Medical Council.
Medical experts however describe the MCI step as an afterthought and not as a planned course of action. Actually, MCI had planned to shorten the MBBS course as they felt that the current curriculum was devoting too much time to general medical studies and the various aspects of the human anatomy. This may not have benefitted the students who wanted to opt for specialisation.
The current MBBS course stretches for five-and-a-half years with four-and-a-half years of academic studies and one year of internship.
Keeping this in mind, the MCI had proposed creation of a rural medical college that conducted courses, which stretched over three and half years. The idea was to train doctors, who could practice only in rural areas. Subsequently, this was opposed by many organisations as it had no legal standing. It was then that MCI decided to introduce the BSc course in rural health.
“As it is this vision to shorten the medical course was a skewed one,” says Dr SV Nadkarni, former dean, LTM Medical College. The main objective of medical education is to produce a basic doctor with the ability to treat all kinds of patients. “Shortening the medical course for the sake of specializations would have posed a huge risk to the rural population who would not have been able to get quality doctors,” he says.
Besides, if the students decided to drop subjects like anatomy or biochemistry and physiology or microbiology, or for that matter FMT training, who would do the basic teaching and practical orientation, or medico-legal autopsies after the current generation of doctors was over, academicians ask.
Even students do not find any fault the present curriculum. “At least on paper we get to cover all the subjects at the primary level. When it comes to introducing a shorter course, we need to understand that we're not studying different organs but the human body,” says John Jacob, fourth year student of Bharti Vidyapeeth's Medical College.
“Although giving students the opportunity to choose specialisation earlier gives them more focused approach in life it also makes their vision tunneled,” says Rohin Sayani, who has just completed his MBBS from Manipal University. A student who is unable to explore a subject deeply is bound to comprise his ability to make the right decision. “Reducing the tenure of an already concise course would certain have impacted its quality,” says Sayani.
The need of the hour is a medical curriculum that trains students to undertake the responsibility of a physician of first contact who is capable of looking after the preventive, promotive, curative and rehabilitative aspects of medicine, say academicians. The aim should be to provide best possible medical education to the students and a best qualified doctor to the community.
“In this field learning is an ongoing process. In order to be good and to stay in the profession you have to be aware of all the new medical advancements and for that you need to be trained well,” says Dr Rekha Bhatkhand, dean, Shushrusha Hospital. A blanket policy of training students to fill the physician shortage does not seem wise or sustainable. “We shouldn't be focusing on whether to shorten the course or increase the number of doctors but instead we should build more colleges to help students gain quality education,” she adds.
“There is already far more to learn than can be learned in medical college, so shortening things would only make it worse. There is also the maturation factor; to function as a doctor you need how to think like one and act like one. That takes time,” concludes Nadkarni.
First Published: Tuesday, April 1, 2014, 17:58
