Ashtang Ayurveda Mahavidyal Principal shares career options available after BAMS

Principal and Medical Superintendent of Ashtang Ayurved Mahavidyalaya & Hospital Pune Prof. Dr. Hemalata Rajendra Jalgaonkar spoke to Shiksha on BAMS career opportunities and increasing research in the field of Ayurveda. 

Q: What are the career options after doing BAMS, MD, MS from Ashtang Ayurveda Mahavidyala?

A: There are ample career options available after doing these courses. After BAMS you can join big institutes, you can start your own practice, can appear for some institutions like TIS (Tata Institute of Science and Technology), by appearing in those you will get a good job with impressive packages. One can apply for government posts like Medical Officer, or Assistant Research Officer. One can apply for PG courses, and doing PG will add more options for the candidates, one can join some institutes, go to academics, do their practice, or start their hospitals. These are some good options available.

Q: What are the research areas of your institute?

A: We have PGs in our institute, so that kind of research is going on at the individual level. If you are a candidate of basic principles, then you can have Sanhita-oriented research, if some students are there in gynaecology and anatomy, they are in the process of research you can say. So, that kind of research is going on. We don’t have any MoU but we are taking help from modern medicine people. So, the integration type of research is going on.

Q: What are your plans and vision to make the college better in terms of education?

A: We are employed in a government institute. So economically we are a little bit lower because we do not get all the funds, and recruitment and all are totally based on the government protocols. So, it is not like that we can recruit from our side. The protocol has been designed for us, so that is the main problem we are facing right now. But vision, with their help, there are two three visions from an academic point of view, hospital point of view, and administration point of view.

From an administrative point, everyone wants our institute should become renowned and big, ratings should improve, and the passouts should do good in their career. 

But we can do this only when we have the entire staff, we can get success from an administration point of view, the next one is academics, definitely, whatever the best possible things are there in Ayurveda, they should reach our students. After completion of their course, the students should be independent and confident in Ayurveda, and with the help of their careers, they should be able to meet their economic and financial goals to the best.

From the hospital's point of view, if the IPD and OPDs are running well, then our students will study here only, they will not need to go anywhere else. The vision is that the students should go out after being satisfied. Rating should also improve. 

Q: How pandemic affected Ashtang Ayurveda Mahavidyala and what are the changes you are observing after two years of the pandemic?

A: We did well during pandemic. While following the protocols of the local authority, during second wave, we were closed for 3 to 4 months. Education went online and I was not happy with that as it was not that beneficial. Online education is not at all good for medical education. 

To cover the practical part which was missed during the pandemic, we extended classes by 6 months. Then also, we can say that the students who were affected during the pandemic period are still not doing well academically.

But if I talk from the hospital's point of view, Ayurveda did very well as Ayurveda medicines became popular as immunity booster medicines. We are more towards prevention and we also did good in the field of yoga by increasing lung capacity.

Q: Recently, WHO Global Centre for Traditional Medicine has been established in Gujarat to position AYUSH systems across the globe. It is the first and only global outposted Centre (office) for traditional medicine across the globe, how do you see the development?

A: The first step is very good but how they are going to implement it is different. There are so many things at the top level. The Centre is in Gujarat but it should run very well across the country. 

Research will increase but whether it will be quality research or not that is the question. Many types of research are going on nowadays but it should be an authentic one. There should be scrutiny of researchers.

Eg- if someone is researching skin and due to too many protocols, the person drops the idea. Then, what is the point? Admin people normally don’t have any knowledge of research. The research should not be just for the sake of showing but to get something substantial. It should not be only for documentation.

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