NMC announces Provisional Relaxation for appointment and promotion of faculty, details

In the recent notification released on the official website of the apex medical regulator, the NMC has noted that inconvenience is being faced by teaching faculty of various institutes in attending mandatory MET workshops, hence it has decided to provide some relaxation to the norms for faculty appointment and promotion for the post of professors.

As a relief, the NMC has extended the period for acquiring requisite MET (Medical Education Technology) and BMR (Biomedical Research) qualification for the purpose of appointment and promotion by 01 (one) year.

This is a one-time relaxation /waiver applicable till 31st December 2022, the notification added.

The appointment of faculty and promotion norms are governed under the Teachers Eligibility Qualifications (TEQ) Regulations, 2021. These TEQ rules, while aiming at standardising recruitment of teachers in all medical institutions across the country, specify the number of patterns starting with who can be classified as a medical teacher, while also specifying a number of courses that doctors will now have to clear to be eligible for various faculty posts.

Read Also: Who can be Medical Faculty: NMC Draft on TEQ rules lay down different criteria for old, new PG, SS courses

As per the mandate, the faculty is required to have completed the Basic course in Medical Education Technology (MET) and Bio-Medical Research (BMR) from institutions designated by the NMC.

Medical Education Technology (MET) Course

The erstwhile, Medical Council of India, now NMC by the MCI Regulations on Graduate Medical Education, 1997, made it mandatory for all medical colleges to establish Medical Education Units (MEUs) or departments in order to enable faculty members to avail modern education technology for teaching. In order to boost this activity, Basic Course Workshops in Medical Education Technologies are being conducted by the medical regulator since 2009 through selected Regional and Nodal Centres, (Nodal Centres are upgraded regional Centres) located at medical colleges with required infrastructural and trained manpower.

The aim behind the workshop is to sensitize teachers about new concepts in teaching and assessment methods, develop knowledge and clinical skills required for performing the role of competent and effective teacher, administrator, researcher and mentor as well as assist clinicians to acquire competency in communication, ethics and behavioral skills, and update knowledge using modern information and research methodology tools.

The Regional Centres (tier I Centres) conduct Workshops in

(1) Basic Course Workshop (BCW) in Medical Education Technologies,

(2) Attitude, Ethics and Communication Module (AETCOM), and

(3) Curriculum Implementation Support Program (CISP). Nodal Centres,

In addition to these three types of Workshops, also conduct Advance Course in Medical Education (ACME).

Check out the list of Regional Centres here

Bio-Medical Research (BMR) Course

Evidence-based medicine is an integral part of medical practice today and facilitates providing medical practitioners with the best available evidence for health care. To comprehend the evidence published in biomedical literature, doctors need to have an understanding of research methods and their principles.

Medical teachers have the responsibility of mentoring and training medical students and also carrying out research work and publishing their work as part of their academic pursuit. It is equally important that they too acquire these research skills. To ensure faculty are able to become competent to train medical students and improve their own research capacity, amendments were made in "Minimum Qualifications for Teachers in Medical Institutions Regulations" on 12.02.2020 making it essential for medical teachers to have completed the Basic course in Biomedical Research from designated Institution(s) for their promotions to various teaching designations.

The National Institute of Epidemiology of the India Council of Medical Research is the designated institution for the conduct of the ONLINE research methods course for postgraduate students and medical teachers in India.

The course allows a flexible time for the participants to register and start the course. However, the course completion requires the participants to appear for an online offsite examination, the timings of which would be notified by the designated institution on their portal from time to time. An online e-certificate would be generated on successful completion of the course and examination. The course schedule, course content, qualifying criteria, registration process and examination details would be available on the website of the designated institution.

Relaxation

Now, granting provisional relaxation, the NMC has decided to extend the period for acquiring requisite MET (Medical Education Technology) and BMR (Biomedical Research) qualification for the purpose of appointment and promotion by 01 (one) year.

To view the official NMC notification, click on the following link:

https://medicaldialogues.in/pdf_upload/norms-for-faculty-166349.pdf