Doctors On Community Service -An attempt to shift focus from Classroom to Community among medical students

Doctors On Community Service -An attempt to shift focus from Classroom to Community among medical students

Vishwa Jinwala , Komal Yadav
Gurukool MAMC, Maulana Azad Medical College, New Delhi, India

Problem statement: Academic learning, clinical exposure through hospital services and community exposure are perceived to be the pillars of medical education. 65.5% of Indian population resides in rural settings whereas healthcare is skewed towards urban areas. To fill the lacunae of perceptual learning among medical students in low-resource/rural settings, an initiative -– Doctors on Community Service (DOCS), was started.

Novelty of Idea: Currently, community based medical education is provided through family visits in second and third year. Following shortcomings were identified in current curriculum:

• Most communities do not represent a low resource setting adequately, which fails to sensitize medical students towards the basic needs of the marginalized sections of the society.
• Limited hours in community does not provide an in-depth view of their living condition.
• There is also a lack of intent among medical undergraduates to serve the community.

To tackle this issue, DOCS organises trips for students in groups 10-12 with a common intent of serving the community, working towards sustainable change and inching the community further towards self reliance. Collaboration with local voluntary health organizations helps in better penetration and understanding of local communities. Focussed group discussions with public health specialists and professors provide better insights about health education, nutrition, sanitation and health-seeking behaviour thus enabling them to develop empathy, leadership skills and encourages problem solving. The concept of DOCS has helped students to conceptualize “Health for All” and enabled medical undergraduates to become better health caregivers.