POST-GRADUATE TRAINING

Our department is a team of 38 doctors (30 post graduates,7 senior residents and a professor), supported by few other specialty doctors who visit the hospital weekly once or twice and interns. In our department of General Medicine the workflow mainly consist of First-year and second-year postgraduates concerned with the patient care, looking after admissions, out-patients, while final-year postgraduates supervise the work of their juniors, prepare for thesis, and final exams. Senior residents and Professor duties mainly pertain to conducting grand rounds, patient counselling , maintaining a smooth workflow, preparing roasters, organising duties and academics.

Important aspects of post-graduate training include,

1.The first important aspect being well organised academics and teaching sessions. 

2. Another important aspect is developing teaching skills among post-graduates by continuous encouragement and motivation to present seminars, case presentations and journals. This also helps in cultivating communication skills among the students. 

3.Clinical case based learning often happens bedside and is a very important aspect of post-graduation training. 

4.The next important aspect is inculcation of interest in research, publications, and presentations by explaining the post-graduates the importance of these things and also how interesting they can be.

5. Few other important aspects include refining clinical skills, preparing them for a specialised practice, ethical decision making, attending clinical rotations in various specialities and train them on how to build a good doctor-patient relationship.

All these aspects of training must be conducted in a student friendly environment. Concerns and problems of each students should be addressed separately.

Focussing on first 2 aspects of training, various problems seem to exist among postgraduate students, making their academics less glorious. A few examples are described below:

- Some postgraduates seem to be disinterested by themselves.

- Some postgraduates appear to be interested in learning, but they are afraid to come forward and ask questions.

- As post-graduation in India is pursued by students aged 25 and above,most of them have personal, family, and financial issues. Various personal stressors are contributing to less academic interest.

-Few post-graduates reported that there is a increased need for doctors who actively conduct teaching sessions, group discussions, journal clubs, bedside clinical classes to make a collective learning happen in the department.

As I started working as a senior resident, some conclusions about my initial meticulous observations of postgraduate training were that there is no organized teaching curriculum in existence. Although there is one on paper, I have noticed that it is not being implemented in reality in a organised way. Inter-departmental mortality meets and clinical meets are being conducted and few changes have been made compared to the time when I did my post-graduation. Seminars and case presentations are being conducted in various specialties under the guidance of specialty doctors with active participation from second-year and final-year postgraduates, but they seem to be less organised. This is making things difficult for postgraduates, mainly for the first-year students who lack basic knowledge before delving into the clinical aspects of various specialties. 

As a person with great interest in teaching, I felt that i am at the right place which can help me achieve my goals in teaching. I can help my post-graduates and also improve my own knowledge. 

A well-organized teaching course in neurology was designed by me with the help of my fellow senior residents (Dr. Shashikala, Dr. Manasa, Dr. Pradeep, Dr. Vamshi, Dr. Manoj, Dr. Gouthami) with the support of our beloved HOD, Dr. Rakesh Biswas. 

The main aim of this teaching course is to create interest among postgraduates in learning and teaching aspects of neurology. I planned to teach them on how to convert theoretical knowledge in neurology into practice. 

We organized the course in such a way that each theory/seminar topic is followed by a relevant case presentation and journal. Postgraduates are trained in the theoretical aspects of the topic in the first class, and in the second class, the main focus is on examination techniques, making differential diagnoses, how to order appropriate investigations, and discussions on the management plan. Attendance to these sessions is monitored. Each session is followed by a short 'best of four MCQ' exam to check the level of understanding of post-graduates and also to generate a competitive spirit among the students. As a course mentor, i go through the presentation of the post-graduate a day before and make necessary changes. As the presentation goes on, i stopped the presenter where ever needed to explain things which are complex and difficult to understand. I tried to make them simplified and i checked understanding among listeners from time to time.

Details of the teaching course in neurology can be accessed via the link provided below. 

CLINICAL NEUROLOGY-THEORY TO PRACTICE

3rd important aspect of post-graduation training: Case-based learning bedside is another important aspect which is being implemented .Details can be accessed via the link provided below.

CLINICAL BEDSIDE CASE-BASED LEARNING

4th important aspect of post-graduation training: Research

QI project on post-graduate research projects is being implimented

Details can be accessed via the link below

QI PROJECT ON POST-GRADUATE RESEARCH PROJECTS