Nipun Goyal lists five tips to revolutionise the present Indian medical education system that can generate more skilled doctors
It is true that medicine is a noble profession and a doctor is responsible to take care of lives. The process of making a career in this profession is undoubtedly thorough and grills a student’s medical competence but that doesn’t cover the fact that the system itself is infested with bureaucracy and is more obsessed with marks rather than knowledge. The basic medical education needs an overhaul and these are some of the ways that can fix the system.
Comprehensive entrance exam
Every year more than 6.4 lakh students appear for All India Pre Medical Test (AIPMT) with the hopes of becoming a doctor. AIPMT has a rejection rate of 99.4 per cent. This means that lakhs of students give exam every year to be in that 0.6 per cent, that’s a game with high stakes!
The AIPMT is an exam with 200 MCQs that have to be solved in three hours. That’s approximately 0.9 minute per question. In short, we decide if a child is fit to be a doctor or not on the basis of his memorising capability and the capacity to recall in those 180 minutes.
What we need is a comprehensive exam where we test not only a child’s academic knowledge but also the aptitude for serving people and taking decisions under stressful situations.
Exit exam
Once a medical student enters the college he/she is made to go through various tests every year till their final exams. Once a student graduates and becomes an intern, there is absolutely no regulation. Everyone has their rotatory posting which are attended religiously to complete internship on time, but nothing to determine or assess what they are learning during this period.
Most of the interns prepare for PG entrances along with their postings, but this entrance exam is also academic oriented. A person’s All India Post Graduate (AIPG) entrance score can’t determine if he/she is a good doctor. What we need are exit exams at the time of internship completion. A practical exam to judge if the intern is ready to go out and practice in real world.
Incentivising rural postings
Most of the doctors are averse to working in rural areas. Given the conditions in which they are made to live away from their families, it doesn’t come as a surprise. Doctors are supposed to leave their families behind for months and practice in a set up that lacks even basic amenities, for peanuts!
We need to start giving shorter rural posting. Instead of making one intern stay in rural Primary Health Centre (PHCs), we can start posting them on weekly basis. Even a batch of 200 students when posted weekly for two days on rotation are more than enough to cover 365 days of the year. And shorter duration would mean they won’t have to live away from their families for a long time.
We need to start giving our doctors their due. If one is supposed to work in rural area he/she should be given an incentivised pay and access to other basic amenities like a Government homes and education for their child. This would give them a reason to shift to rural areas.
Keeping a closer check on private colleges
MCI needs to keep a stronger check on private colleges before approving for increased intake. A doctor with half knowledge can be a potential threat to the society. A standardised exit exam can be the yardstick for the medical prowess of our potential doctors
Involving younger generation in MCI & University administration
Selection of the administrative committee, either for management or academics, is done on the basis of a person’s experience. One never sees any young graduate entering into university councils or on MCI board. These young graduates are the one who actually go through the system and have experienced the shortcomings firsthand. logic dictates that there should be few seats for young graduates who can actively identify the problems with the system and help plug them.
A recent poll conducted on Curofy, highlighted that 85 per cent of Indian doctors feel that current Indian Medical Education System is discouraging young aspirants. Students passing out of college are not prepared for the challenges that wait for them in the real world. It’s time to take some radical steps quickly. MCI has taken some small steps to change the system but that’s not enough. We have just been replacing the fuse, what we need is the complete overhaul of this circuit.
(The writer is co-founder, Curofy)
