MCI To Announce New MBBS Curriculum

Director-General of Health Services S. Venkatesh on Sunday announced that the Board of Governors of Medical Council of India (MCI) had finalised a new competency-based MBBS curriculum which will be rolled out from the upcoming academic session.

“The new curriculum conforming to global trends is more learner-centric and gender sensitive. It stresses on medical ethics, better doctor-patient relationship and environment appropriate learning. Apart from various medical colleges, the curriculum is being introduced in the new All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS),” he said.

Dr. Venkatesh was speaking at the ninth convocation of Nursing and Allied Medical Sciences in Jipmer.

Speaking after awarding degrees to candidates, he said a Bill had been introduced in the Rajya Sabha for regulation and standardisation of education and services for allied and health care professionals. The Bill provides setting up of an allied health care council of India and corresponding health care councils at the State-level which would be trendsetters and facilitators for professionals of allied health care in the country.

Dr. Venkatesh advised the graduates to convert challenges into opportunities to take them forward in a big way.

Leadership role

“Once you become a professional nurse you have become a leader in whatever position you find yourself. Even though your mission is to care and to advocate it is also to lead. You can only be the best care provider and the best advocate if you see yourself as a leader and strive to demonstrate required leadership qualities in any organisation where you work.

“To be a good leader you must be aware of your area of work thoroughly. This calls for continuing education as a professional nurse. Learning must not end at graduation or postgraduation. Learning is for life. You can broaden and strengthen your practice and leadership by continuing your education. This is the surest way to ensure best practice and evidence-based practice to be a confident, reliable and respectable and effective leader,” he said.

The Director-General suggested that Jipmer could play a major role in developing a competency-based curriculum.

There is a fresh need for developing a competency-based curriculum in nursing. Production of better calibre of students calls for a strong faculty, he said and added that Jipmer must invest on the faculty development programme both in nursing and allied health sciences.

Dr. Venkatesh said that Jipmer should strengthen the integration of education and nursing services to ensure that highly educated nurses employed in the educational side and clinically competent nurses working under the hospital side complement and supplement each other.

Nursing faculty can contribute in quality assurance initiative as well as continue quality improvement initiatives.

Successful nurses

There are several success stories of nurse-led clinics in developed countries and even in our own country.

Therefore Jipmer could consider taking up nurse-led clinics run by postgraduate nursing students under the supervision of the nursing faculty in collaboration with the medical faculty.

To begin with, this could happen in diabetic education clinic, palliative care clinic, stroma clinic and wound care dressings. This would help reduce the clinical load on the clinicians as well as improve the quality of care provided in these areas, he added.

V.M. Katoch, president, Jipmer; Rakesh Aggarwal, Director; and R.P. Swaminathan, Dean (Academic), were present.

As many as 345 students from various disciplines were awarded degrees during the convocation.- The Hindu