Balaji Arumugam

Abstract

Family Adoption Programme (FAP) aims to provide an experiential learning opportunity to Indian medical graduates towards community-based health care and thereby equity in health. FAP is recommended as a part of curriculum of Community Medicine subject and should begin from first professional year with competencies being spread in ascending manner for entire MBBS training program. The family adoption should preferably include villages not covered under PHCs/RHTC adopted by the medical college. Medical students may be divided into teams and each team may be allotted visits with five families per student. A brief sensitization session on the needs and competencies of Family Adoption Programme (FAP) as recommended by the National Medical Council of India was conducted which was followed by sensitization of the students to the FAP document prepared by the department along with hands on practice. Then the students along with their team members visited nearby three villages (Tenmathur, Endal and Kolakudi) for their first family adoption visit. During the visit, they interacted with the family and details were documented, the mentors refined the corrections of the document, and then the students were made to present their families in the power point presentation with their reflective experience of the first family adoption programme visit.   Keywords: Family adoption programme (FAP), NMC norms, Community medicine, Field visit, Students reflection, Narrative review, Village adoption.

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Abstract

Background: The concept of Problem-based Learning (PBL) was first introduced at McMaster University in the late 1960s and was subsequently accepted widely by the medical schools throughout the world. hPBL has been intuitively viewed by many as a cocktail curriculum of McMaster style of small group discussion PBL (generally referred to as “pure PBL”) with the blending of variable amounts of traditional lectures, practical sessions and case-studies. Objectives: The study was done as an introduction of innovative teaching learning method and its learning experiences by students and faculty involved. Materials and Methods: The innovative teaching learning method was adapted during the year July – October - 2019 when the students were posted in the department of community medicine for four weeks. The TL methods included were blended lectures; case scenarios (clinico social case pertaining to community medicine subject), pre test and post test MCQs, case presentation and in small group discussion were done. The experiences were obtained as the reflective writing from the students and the faculty involved in implementation of h-PBL. Results: Majority of the students expressed that the learning was useful, interactive, thought provoking, interesting and the group discussion paved the way for communication skill development among the peers. The students said that the learning happened actively and scope for self directed learning was also incorporated in the implementation of h-PBL. Faculties involved were very enthusiastic especially during the group discussions, because the sociogram was excellently represented that almost all the students took part in the discussion. Conclusion: The h-PBL can be a part of the regular curriculum during the clinical postings which can include case based learning with blended lectures. Keywords: PBL, h­ PBL, Teaching learning, Student centered learning, Innovative TL method.

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