SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad, Feb 18: Students of the 1st MBBS professional course of 2021 academic session will have to adopt at least five families in a village to monitor their health condition and advice for treatment.
For strengthening health services in rural pockets, the National Medical Commission (NMC) has introduced a new curriculum “Family Adoption Programme (FAP) for students of 1st MBBS professional from 2021 academic session which started from February 14.
In this regard, the NMC held a virtual meeting with all six medical colleges of Jharkhand on February 7 over the modality of FAP and its implementation mechanism.
“As per programme in the first year, each student would be assigned the responsibility of five families of a selected village. The medico will have to visit adopted families on Saturday- Sunday to study their health condition and provide advice duly,” said one of the principals of Jharkhand medical colleges, who wished not to be quoted.
After visiting the adopted families, the MBBS students would have to fill up a logbook in the college about their experience and health condition of the adopted family members. An assistant professor of the institution would assist the students in this work.
“FAP programme is not new for MBBS students as it was also being given to them under Rural Health Training programme (RHTP) under Preventive Social Medicine (PSM)/ community medicine. But differences are that while in RHTP students had to visit all villages of a selected CHC, but in FAP students would have to go to only one village, ” said a senior professor of Shahid Nirmal Mahto Medical College Hospital (SNMMCH) Dhanbad.
FAP to create pressure and tension on students
A principal of a medical college of the state expressed apprehension that the adoption of families in villages would create pressure and tension on the students.
“Villagers would understand the students as a doctor and expect treatment advice from them on the spot for different complications. A huge crowd would appear for getting medical advice which would create pressure on 1st MBBS students,” said the principal.
Moreover, most of the principals of medical colleges said that NMC has of course discussed the new curriculum but has not clarified about the expenditure students would have to bear in visiting the villages. In the PSM programme, the college arranged a bus for students in a group to visit the villages.
