記住我
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Year : 2023 | Volume
: 14
| Issue : 2 | Page : 119-120
Medical education in COVID-19 times
Harish Gupta
Department of Medicine, King George's Medical University, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India
Correspondence Address:
Dr. Harish Gupta
Department of Medicine, King George's Medical University, Lucknow - 226 003, Uttar Pradesh
India
Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None
DOI: 10.4103/injms.injms_14_23
“YUKTI (Young India combating COVID with Knowledge, #Technology, and #Innovation) web portal will systematically assimilate technologies with commercial potential and information related to incubated startups in our higher education institutions.”
– Ministry of Education, Government of India, on Twitter.[1]
Dear Editor,
Nair et al. assessed the impact of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 pandemic on postgraduate medical education in Armed Forces Medical Services Institutions and provided us with a students' perspective in their article published in January–March 2023 issue of the Journal.[2] They conducted a survey among their fellow workers, obtained their responses, tabulated the study results, and thereafter drew some useful conclusions. When we were finding it hard to socially connect with each other during the surge of infectious cases in different geographies and hospitals were admitting patients in their COVID-19 wards; what were the lived experiences of our colleagues posted there, is something interesting, raises curiosity and provides us insight to the way they felt emotions then. We are indebted to the researchers for providing us with the results in such an easy-to-understand manner and sharing some useful observations.
Nevertheless, there are a few intriguing findings toward which I want to draw their attention. In Figure 1, there is a caption - Time spent on daily activities. The figure shows that when the residents were on their COVID-19 duty, how many of them were on shifts of how long duration. What one observes is that 9% of residents were on 12-h shifts. However, in my experience, that is an unusual occurrence and demands some explanation. At COVID hospitals, we had green/orange and red zones where we admitted patients depending on their exposure possibility and pending investigation results.[3] What that means is that if one had a history of close (high risk) exposure, for example, without a mask and visited the hospital for a respiratory infection or some disease requiring surgery at the height of a wave,[4] one was initially admitted in the red zone, and after the arrival of her reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction report, she was shifted to the appropriate ward.
Hence, staying in a red zone for 12 h straight was a difficult task, whereas it was almost business as usual in a green zone. Hence, which resident stayed for 12 h while attending his COVID duty and participated in this survey, I am curious to know. Similarly, the 2-h duty roster is also puzzling. If that was the case, how will arrangements be made for arranging man (and woman) power, is a poser.
At my hospital, staff used to visit the COVID ward on a rotation basis – after donning personal protective equipment – and usually, residents used to discuss the admitted cases in an orange zone. One of the reasons for the way of functioning was that with an N95 mask on, it was difficult to talk to each other, especially when the noise of machinery and medical equipment – which included monitor alarms, exhaust fans, and ceiling fans – used to create a barrier for unrestricted communication. To overcome the challenge, some residents used their phones to discuss cases as their colleagues/teachers in the orange/green zone may provide their opinion/seek relevant information for better case management. Hence, what constitutes the 12-h “time spent” on COVID-19 duty in this case? I want to have more information.
Furthermore, toward the end of the discussion, the investigators suggest residents to speak while appointing faculty members with social skills as a “social support group.” Here, I want to underscore that conducting student body elections and encouraging them to voice their concerns are mandatory requirements of a medical college to get recognition from the National Medical Commission (NMC).[5] Contrarily, what happens on the ground many times is that students and residents are not provided the freedom, and then, several concerns arise. For several students and residents, usually among toppers, college premises are the first opportunity after passing out from their schools when they interact with their colleagues having a different background – either as a learner (student) first or as a workforce (resident) later on – and they have a lot to teach to each other. Depriving them of useful and exhilarating interaction may make them bereft of social skills, which may put them at a position of disadvantage at some critical moment later on.
To the best of my knowledge, most of the medical colleges do not conduct and do not allow their students and residents to undergo election, and during inspection of NMC, they pass off some paperwork as its minutes of meetings. Therefore, the statutory body should look beyond the formalities and reports and make some arrangements for ensuring the smooth conduct of the democratic exercise. As then only they will know how to impress each other and what are the benefits of convincing those who are different from us. Our knowledge widens and experiences are enriched when we take interest in people who are usually outside our area of interest. When we extend our helping hands to those whom we did not talk to before, the conversation opens up new possibilities and novel avenues of exchange of ideas, widens our horizons, makes us humble by showing us our limitations, and defines the merits of agreeing with disagreements in a nice/friendly/cooperative/talkative way. Moreover, these chapters are usually not there in our formal textbooks.
Learning these soft skills – in my experience – is as important as remembering hardcore medical facts about the human body. Moreover, one does not always need a faculty member to learn the lessons. When rules are followed and freedom is there to exercise their rights, earning the experience is a natural fallout.
Financial support and sponsorship
None.
Conflicts of interest
There are no conflicts of interest.
References
留言 (0)