Foundation Course for First MBBS-Are the Students Prepared to Face the Challenge?

Renuka Devi MR^* and Devaki PR

^*Correspondence: Dr. Renuka Devi MR, Department of Physiology, Sree Balaji Medical College and Hospital, Chromepet, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, Email:

Author info »

Introduction

There is a big transition in the minds of the students from school education to medical college. The practice of medicine is an art, not a trade, a calling, not a business-a calling in which your heart will be exercised equally with your head [1]. They have to be equipped mentally to face a big challenge that is to enhance them into competent first contact Indian medical graduate amongst the competitive world and also to deliver good patient care. Foundation course are introduced by the Medical council of India as a part of revised competency based medical education for a period of one month to enable the students to equip themselves to face and also to go through the challenge [2]. The modules introduced are orientation, professional development including ethics, sports and extracurricular activities, language enhancement and computer skills, field visit and skill module. This study aims at analyzing the feedback from the students related to the usefulness of the foundation course to face the MBBS programme. This study aimed to analyse the students feedback on the foundation course introduced by the medical council of India in first year as a part of revised competency based medical education [3].

Literature Review

Around 150 students of first MBBS were recruited for the study. The students have completed attending 50% of the foundation course in the mid of August 2019. The topics which was completed were the Medical profession and the physicians role, alternative health systems, history of medicine, orientation to medical ethic, attitude/ professionalism, health care system and its delivery, national health policies, universal precautions, vaccination, patient safety, biohazard safety, principles of primary care in general, principles of primary care in community based care, doctors role in scene of crime, orientation to research, concept of professionalism, medical ethics, role and responsibilities of doctor in society, behaviour, attitude towards-peers, seniors, faculty, health care workers and patients, language skills, computer skills and so on. Feedback was obtained using questionnaire which were designed based on the orientation program module, professional development and ethics module which was completed by them. The results were analysed statistically [4].

Results

According to Table 1, 97.6% of the students have told that they were benefitted by this foundation program and that the fear of big course has become light in front of them. They are well oriented towards the health policies of the country, integrity, patient care, ethics and attitude, revised curriculum, new environment.

Table 1: Showing the % of students saying yes for various questions in the feedback.

Discussion

Foundation course are introduced by the Medical Council of India as a part of revised competency based medical education for a period of one month to enable the students to equip themselves to face and also to go through the challenge. The modules introduced are orientation, professional development including ethics, sports and extracurricular activities, language enhancement and computer skills, field visit and skill module. The students come from different boards of education, different socio economic status. Different scores, different parts of the country. This foundation course was designed by MCI based on the diversity in the student population. This will increase their confidence level to face the vast curriculum of MBBS course. They can orient themselves to the objectives; know their responsibilities, dos and don’ts, safe guard themselves in times of crises. It is not that the graduates without this foundation course are not competent, the question is whether all are competent, is it standardized, whether 100% quality of competent doctors assured by the institute. This initiative by the MCI aims at standardisation of the graduates as well as the curriculum.

We aimed at analysing the feedback from the students related to the usefulness of the foundation course to face the MBBS programme. The students have completed attending 50% of the foundation course in the mid of August 2019. Table 1 shows that most of the questions in the feedback had positive response that is more than 95% students say that the topic has helped them. This brings us to the conclusion that the foundation course will be greater help to them.

Conclusion

The foundation course in the first month of the MBBS curriculum has helped the students to move confidently towards the institutional goal.

References

1. Osler W. An Address On The Master-Word In Medicine: Delivered to Medical Students on the Occasion of the Opening of the New Laboratories of the Medical Faculty of the University of Toronto, October 1st, 1903. Br Med J 1903; 2:1196.

   [Crosreff][Googlescholar][Indexed]

2. Medical Council of India. Foundation Course for the Undergraduate Medical Education Program, 2019; 1-46.
3. Srimathi T. A study on students’ feedback on the foundation course in first year MBBS curriculum. Int J Med Res Health Sci 2014; 3:575-579.

   [Crosreff][Googlescholar]

4. Devi NJ, Kumari AS, Murty DS. The Impact of Orientation Program for First MBBS Students In The Transformation of Perceptual Learning into Experiential Learning–An Insight. IOSR J Dent Med Sci 2016; 15:40-45.

   [Googlescholar]