AIIMS to start Medical Humanities Programme
AIIMS has become the country’s first government medical college to offer medical humanities course, which is a norm for all international centres of excellence in medicine.
While a provision for the course is said to have existed in the AIIMS Act of 1956, but it was never cleared by the governing bodies of the institute. Now, having obtained the necessary approval, AIIMS has launched a medical humanities course for undergraduate students. It is a domain which is now gaining importance in training doctors for better management of patients and coping with stress.
Medical humanities, a discipline that focuses on social, cultural and economic parameters of health is quite different from the science taught to the medical students. There is a need for doctors to understand social issues and myths associated with disease, expenditure on treatment and proper communication skills to help patients. The academic committee is looking forward to develop a comprehensive programme which will include psychology, health economics and medical ethics etc. Since this is the first time, international experiences would serve as a reference for modeling specific requirements according to the country.
As per another news report, Jamia Milia Islamia was approached by AIIMS to depute faculty for English classes to help students cope with language problems. Reportedly, as per a committee member, a system for weekly or monthly English classes exists to support week students, but they don’t attend these classes as they feel that they don’t need spoken English lessons but need help with medical terminology and the subjects taught in English.
The governing body of AIIMS did not approve the proposal to hire permanent English teachers in AIIMS. However, for the first time, the institute has introduced a 10-day orientation programme for its first-year students to help them with language and other common adjustment problems. Read More..
