MUMBAI: A draft regulation for Compulsory Rotating Internship, 2021, released by the National Medical Commission (NMC), MBBS students will soon have to undergo internship training in Ayush, along with other postings.
Sudha Shenoy, a parent representative, said internships are usually done in students’ own specialty. “This will also reduce their time spent in specialties they are expected to be trained in.”
A senior doctor said there is no point in persuading students to do this half-heartedly. “They should be aware of Ayush, but we hope the training will be on awareness only. There was, perhaps, no need to include it explicitly in the regulations,” the doctor said. On the other hand, including superspecialty training in MBBS internship will give better exposure, said an intern from a government hospital.
The NMC has also recommended that students complete their internship from the same institute they graduate from, leaving no scope for transfers. Currently, many students prefer seeking tra-nsfer from private colleges to government ones for better clinical exposure. They also seek transfers to hospitals in their hometown. Shenoy said students usually prefer to intern in their home cities.
Among other changes, interns will have to maintain a record of their work in a logbook, which is to be verified and certified by the reporting medical officer. For the first time, the NMC has also spelt out the certifiable procedural skills in each discipline, which must be recorded in the intern’s logbook.
Dr Avinash Supe, former dean of KEM Hospital, said including certifiable competency skills in the internship regulation is a welcome move. “Students are expected to learn these skills and document their training, as per the new guidelines. This will ensure that they are not only learning these skills, but are practically competent too,” he added.
