MBBS students to mandatorily adopt a family from 1st professional year: NMC
New Delhi: Issuing new Guidelines under the Graduate Medical Education Regulations, 2023, the Undergraduate Medical Education Board (UGMEB) of the National Medical Commission (NMC) has now released the curriculum for the Family Adoption Programme.
A circular in this regard was released on June 12, 2023, the Director of the UGMEB, Shambhu Sharan Kumar stating, "All previously issued Notifications/circulars/clarifications shall now be void and superseded by these new guidelines."
These new guidelines including the new curriculum for the Family Adoption Programme "shall be applicable to all the admission made in MBBS course in a medical college in the academic year 2023-24."
The Curriculum for the Family Adoption Programme includes targets to be achieved by the MBBS students in their first, second, and third professional year of the course. Further, the curriculum lists down the competencies that the students should be able to acquire, objectives, suggested teaching-learning methods, suggested assessment methods, and teaching hours.
Further, the Family Adoption Programme curriculum also includes the log book for Family Adoption, which shall include the name of the college, university, address details, name of the students, roll number, village name, Tehsil/District, State/Union Territory, name of the mentor, status of the mentor, name and address and experience of Asha worker, etc.
Also Read: Coming Soon: NMC plans on Introducing Family Adoption Programme in MBBS Curriculum
FAMILY ADOPTION PROGRAM:
This is being introduced with the aim of a village outreach program for MBBS students. Every college may arrange one diagnostic medical camp in the village wherein identification of:
a) anaemia, malnutrition in children, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, ischemic heart diseases, kidney diseases, any other local problems may be addressed.
b) If required, patients shall be admitted in the hospital for acute illness under care of student, charges may be waived off or provide concession or govt. schemes
c) For chronic illness, students shall be involved.
d) Subsidized treatment charges may be provided under govt. schemes or welfare schemes.
e) Medical student may be allocated about 5 families and introduced in the first visit
f) Camps may be arranged by Dean and Community Medicine/ P.S.M. department with active involvement of Associate/ Asst. Professors, social worker and supporting staff. Local population may be involved with village leaders
g) Visit by students be made to the visit as mentioned in table below. Annual follow up diagnostic camp can be continued by the PSM department
TARGETS TO BE ACHIEVED BY STUDENTS –
First Professional Year:
a) Learning communication skills and inspire confidence amongst families
b) Understand the dynamics of rural set-up of that region
c) Screening programs and education about ongoing government sponsored health related programs
d) Learn to analyse the data collected from their families
e) Identify diseases/ ill-health/ malnutrition of allotted families and try to improve the standards
Second Professional Year:
a) Inspire active participation of community through families allotted
b) Continue active involvement to become the first doctor /reference point of the family by continued active interaction
c) Start compiling the outcome targets achieved
Third Professional Year:
Professional Year Analysis of their involvement and impact on existing socio-politico-economic dynamics in addition to improvement in health conditions
Final visit to have last round of active interaction with families -prepare a report to be submitted to department addressing:
1) Improvement in general health
2) Immunization
3) Sanitation
4) De-addiction
5) Whether healthy lifestyles like reading good books, sports/ yoga activities have been inculcated in the house-holds.
6) Improvement in anaemia, tuberculosis control
7) Sanitation awareness
8) Any other issues
9) Role of the student in supporting family during illness/ medical emergency
10) Social responsibility in the form of environment protection programme in form of plantation drive (medicinal plants/trees), cleanliness and sanitation drives with the initiative of the medical student
Curriculum for Family Adoption Programme –
| Professional Year | Competency The student should be able to | Objectives | Suggested Teaching Learning methods | Suggested Assessment methods | Teaching Hours |
| 1st Professional | Collect demographic profile of allotted families, take history and conduct clinical examination of all family members Organize health check-up and coordinate treatment of adopted family under overall guidance of mentor Maintain communication follow up of remedial measures | By the end of this visit, students should be able to compile the basic demographic profile of allocated family members By the end of this visit, students should be able to report the basic health profile and treatment history of allocated family members By the end of this visit, students should be able to provide details of communication maintained with family members for follow-up of treatment and suggested remedial measures | Family survey, Community clinics Community clinics, Multispecialty camps Reporting of follow up visits, PRA techniques (transact walk, group discussion) Community clinics | Community case presentation, OSPE, logbook, journal of visit Community case presentation, OSPE, logbook, journal of visit Community presentation, logbook certification competency, journal ofvisit case OSPE, lookbook based certification of competency journal of visit | 6 hrs 9 hrs 6 hrs (Total27 hrs, 9 visits) |
| 2nd Professional | Take history and conduct clinical examination of all family members Organize health check-up and coordinate treatment of adopted family under overall guidance of mentor Maintain communication & follow up of remedial measures Take part in environment protection and sustenance activities | By the end of this visit, students should be able to compile the updated medical history of family members and report their vitals and anthropometry By the end of this visit, students should be able to report the details of clinical examination like Hb %, blood group, urine routine and blood sugar along with treatment history of allocated family members By the end of this visit, students should be able to provide details of communication maintained with family members for follow-up of treatment, and suggested remedial measures along with details of vaccination drive By the end of this visit, students should be able to report the activities undertaken for environment protection and sustenance like study of environment of families, tree plantatior/ herbal plantation activities conducted in the village | Family survey, Community clinics Community clinics, Multispecialty camps Reporting of follow up visits, PRA techniques (transact walk, group discussion) Community clinics, Participation in and Process documentation of activities (NSS activities) along with reporting of photographic evidences
| Community case presentation, OSPE, logbook, journal of visit Community case presentation, OSPE, logbook, joumal of visit Community case presentation, OSPE, logbook based certification of competency, journal ofvisit logbook based certification of competency, journal of visit | 6 hrs 9 hrs 9 hrs 6 hrs ( Total 30 hrs, l0 visits) |
| 3rd Professional | Take history and conduct clinical examination of all family members Organize health check-up and coordinate treatment of adopted family under overall guidance of mentor Maintain communication & follow up of remedial measures Take part in environment protection and sustenance activities. o Council the family members of allotted families and analyze the health trajectory of adopted family under overall guidance of mentor | By the end of this visit, students should be able to update the medical history of family members and their vitals and anthropometry By the end of this visit, students should be able to report the details of clinical examination like Hb %, blood group, urine By the end of this visit, students should be able to provide details of communication maintained with family members for follow-up of treatment, and suggested remedial measures along with details of vaccination drive By the end of this visit, students should be able to report the activities undertaken for environment protection and sustenance like study of environment of families, tree plantation/ herbal plantation activities conducted in the village, By the end of this visit, students should be able to analyze and report the health trajectory of adopted family along with remedial measures adopted at individual, family and community level | Family survey, Community clinics Community clinics, Multispecialty camps Reporting of follow up visits. PRA techniques (transact walk, group discussion) Community clinics, Participation in and Process documentatio n of activities (NSS activities) along with reporting of photographic evidences, Small group discussion (report of the health trajectory of adopted family) | Community case presentation, OSPE, logbook, journal visit Community case presentation, OSPE, logbook, journal ofvisit Community case presentation, OSPE, logbook based certification of competency, joumal of visit logbook based certification of competency, journal ofvisit | 3 hrs 3 hrs 3hrs 3 hrs Total 21 hrs, 7 visits |
LOG BOOK FOR FAMILY ADOPTION:
COLLEGE NAME
UNIVERSITY
ADDRESS DETAILS
NAME OF THE STUDENT ROLL NO.
VILLAGE NAME
TEHSIL/ DISTRICT
STATE/ UNION TERITORY NAME OF THE MENTOR
MENTOR STATUS
Asst. Prof/ S.R. And Details
(If changed, details of subsequent mentors)
NAME OF ASHA WORKER ADDRESS OF ASHA WORKER :
EXPERIENCE
(SINCE HOW MANY YEARS IS HE! SHE EMPLOYED) (SEPARATE PAGE FOR EACH FAMILY BE MAINTAINED)
• Family name and address
• Approximate size of living space of house-hold
• Malarial flu/ etc pertinent to the region
1) If there is any illness or medical emergency required by the house-hold, the student should take initiative in being the primary contact for the family.
2) The student in turn should consult his/her mentor for further management of the patient.
3) The hospital to which the college is attached must provide treatment facilities to the patient.
4) Government schemes may be utilized for optimal management.
5) Follow-up records must be maintained by the student. These must be periodically evaluated by mentors with the help of senior residents.
6) The entire data sheet may be prepared by every student and submitted by the end of 6th semester for evaluation.
7) Progress notes must include every demographic point and history recorded.
Also Read: NMC releases final Graduate Medical Education Regulations 2023, check out details
Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that NMC's consideration of introducing a new Family Adoption Programme as a part of the MBBS curriculum. Such a step was taken by the top medical regulator with an aim of making healthcare services accessible in the rural areas in an equitable manner.
Earlier the possibility of including this programme under the supervision of the Community Medicine Department of every College had been mentioned in a recent paper penned down by the President of UG Medical Education Board of NMC, Dr Aruna V Vanikar and Dr Vijayendra Kumar, a member of the UGMEB.
Published in the Indian Journal of Preventive & Social Medicine, the paper titled "The family adoption programme: Taking Indian medical undergraduate education to villages", had provided a brief understanding of the availability of doctors in India when compared to the rural population.
The paper pointed out that 66.7% of the country's total population belonged to rural areas and the rural health system was plagued with inequitable access to healthcare.
So, with the aim of making medical facilities available to the rural population in India and also to improve the practical knowledge and hands-on training of the would-be doctors, the paper written down by the President of the UGMEB, Dr Vanikar had mentioned the possibility of introducing "Family Adoption Programme" in the MBBS curriculum.
Finally making the possibility into reality, last year NMC introduced the long speculated program in its new CBME curriculum for MBBS course. The details of the program was published in the NMC circular dated March 31, 2022.
However, recently, after the publication of Graduate Medical Education Regulations, 2023 in the official Gazette of India on June 02, 2023, the UG Medical Education Board of NMC has now released the guidelines for a new MBBS curriculum and along with it, it has also released the curriculum for the Family Adoption Programme.
To view the document, click on the link below:
https://medicaldialogues.in/pdf_upload/gmer2023compressed-211785.pdf
Also Read: Family Adoption Programme finds its place in new MBBS Curriculum
