Ward visits to be made mandatory for MBBS II year students

Updated on: Monday, March 14, 2011

MBBS students, from their second year onwards will make visits to wards, interact with patients and perform evening rounds like full-fledged doctors.

The Medical Council of India (MCI), as part of its new curriculum for undergraduate medical education, has decided to introduce a new training or "clerkship" under which medical students will be attached to resident doctors to accompany them during rounds, help in managing patients and talk to them, thereby improving their communication skills and help patients cope better with their illnesses. However, they will not treat patients.

MCI's governing body memeber, Dr Sita Naik said, "The current medical training is boring and classroom oriented. We are therefore reviving a practice that used to exist 20 years back in India â€“ assign undergraduate students to wards.

They will then help resident doctors with managing patients. They will, however, not prescribe treatment but just assist residents."

Dr Naik added, "This will give them early clinical exposure and excite them. Right from the second year, students will have access to wards and clinics. This will make them feel they are part of clinical practice. At present, students don't go to wards. Instead, they are taught anatomy and physiology in class."

According to MCI, medical science "attracts the brightest minds but does not challenge their brains".

"This practice of students assisting resident doctors fell through in the last 20 years as medical training became more classroom oriented. Maybe it was because too many students were attached to a single resident who found it an additional headache. Now, we will reintroduce the system to make medical education more clinical based," Dr Naik said.

MCI governing body member told that the crucial meeting to finalise the UG and PG curriculum will take place on March 29.

Ward visits to be made mandatory for MBBS II year students

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