11 GMCs in Maharashtra to get skill labs for MBBS students

Mumbai: Taking a step forward towards providing modernised medical education to the students, around 11 government medical colleges (GMCs) in Maharashtra is set to launch skill labs to train undergraduate students for better skill enhancement.

Skill labs play a key role in medical and paramedical training quality assurance. Here, procedural skills are trained, repeatedly practised, and evaluated until the required minimum standard for patient treatment is ensured.

It provides hands-on learning experiences to the medical fraternity for the practice of clinical skills, which are deemed essential for the effective and safe management of patients prior to facing the real patient population.

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Therefore, in accordance with the standards of the National Medical Commission (NMC), the state will have 11 GMCs that will provide medical students with a virtual hands-on experience in skills like urinary bladder catheterisation, simple suturing, neonatal resuscitation and intubation among other things.

The current undergraduate medical education curriculum focuses on competencies and outcomes and emphasizes skill development in all phases.

Skills lab provides a safe training environment in which a learner can be observed and be provided with the feedback necessary to improve. It also allows the learner to do tasks repetitively under supervision till the desired level of competency is achieved.

The undergraduate medical education program is designed with a goal to create an “Indian Medical Graduate” (IMG) possessing the requisite knowledge, skills, attitudes, values and responsiveness, so that he or she may function appropriately and effectively as a physician of first contact of the community while being globally relevant.

As per NMC's mandate, every medical institution must provide students access to a skills laboratory where they can practice and improve skills pre-specified in the curriculum. A minimum of 4 patient examination rooms (preferably 8) for examination of patients or standardized/ simulated patients by an individual student. These should be equipped with a facility for video recording and review.

These labs will have whole-body rubber mannequins, a facility for video recording, a gynaecological examination model, and basic life support for students to work on requisite clinical, motor and even communication skills as per the curriculum.

Submitting their proposal for the set up of the skill lab, Grant Government Medical College and JJ Hospital, Mumbai told TOI, "It is a mandate given by NMC under the new curriculum for competency-based medical education. The Covid pandemic pushed the implementation of the new curriculum by a couple of years, but now all colleges are expected to have it. We have also sent our proposal...," said the dean of the college, Dr Pallavi Sapale.

Dr Avinash Supe, former dean of KEM Hospital, said "It is better that students gain competency to some extent in a virtual set-up before they work with patients. Practice in skill labs will also minimise the risks involved in the actual procedure.”

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