Pune's BJ Medical College becomes first institute to set up Clinical Skills Lab

Pune- B.J. Medical College, Pune, became the first government medical college in India to set up a clinical skills laboratory for medical students. This clinical skills lab will advance the medical skills of medical students, such as learning how to apply sutures, remove stitches and even resuscitate a patient using a pediatric bronchoscope, etc.

To upgrade medical skills among medical students, six government medical colleges in Pune have been approved to set up clinical skills laboratories. Among these, BJMC is one of the six colleges that have taken the initiative to set up a clinical skills laboratory. With this, BJMC became the first government medical college to set up a Clinical Skills Laboratory, which was recently inaugurated by BJMC Dean Dr Chandrakant Mhaske.

Dr Chandrakant Mhaske told Indian Express “The main aim of the lab is to enhance the skills and confidence of undergraduate MBBS students, postgraduate students, faculty, paramedical students, and nursing staff. By training on mannequins before engaging in real patient care, students and staff can ensure higher quality patient outcomes”.

For this Clinical Skills Laboratory, the college has provided 48 mannequins where students can easily learn the medical skills. On this, speaking to the Indian Express, Dr Sanyogita Naik, a nodal officer at the lab, Professor and Head of the Anaesthesiology department at B J Medical College said, “that the laboratory is important as it provides a safe environment for medical students to practice clinical skills before he/she can use them in real clinical settings. For instance, several resuscitation procedures and techniques can be taught apart from other procedures like how to place an endotracheal tube for artificial ventilation and so on. These efforts also help build confidence levels and develop skills”.

Apart from the medical skills, the Clinical Skills Laboratory will also offer some comprehensive courses including National Emergency Life Support (NELS), Basic Life Support (BLS), Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) and Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) for both students and faculty.

On this, BJMC doctors said, “Not only will this empower medical students but also encourage the development of communication skills so that they can be applied in real-life settings”.