Other Departments

Medical Education

About the Department

“To develop systems which will continuously support faculty development, assess and evaluate institutional needs, and enhance the quality and standards of medical education.”

The Department of Medical Education (DME) at St. John’s Medical College is an NMC-designated Nodal Centre. The mission of the department is to develop systems which will continuously support faculty development, assess and evaluate institutional needs, and enhance the quality and standards of medical education.

As a Nodal Centre, St. John’s conducts the mandatory Basic Course in Medical Education (BCME) workshop, Curriculum Implementation and Support Program (CISP), and the Advance Course in Medical Education (ACME), primarily for Medical Education Unit (MEU) and Curriculum Committee (CC) members from medical colleges allotted to our centre. In addition, many faculty members from the DME have been involved in the conceptualization and monitoring of the new competency-based curriculum (CBC) for the MBBS course that was introduced in 2019.

Academic Initiatives & Training

The department took charge of setting up the Simulation Centre in 2018 and subsequently running it. Another area coordinated by the department is e-learning in undergraduate medical education. Several other faculty workshops, such as the PBL Facilitator Workshop, the OSCE workshop, and the MCQ workshop, have been conducted by the department.

In addition to its role in faculty development, the department trains postgraduate students on basic teaching methodologies. Even prior to the implementation of the CBC, the department conducted novel training programs for MBBS students, such as PBL and basic and advanced communication skills. An OSCE for interns is conducted annually to provide feedback on their level of preparedness to serve as basic doctors in the community.

Recent Developments

More recently, a novel online Clinical Reasoning workshop was conducted for final-year students as a component of the student-doctor method of learning envisaged by the NMC. A series of workshops on demystifying competency-based medical education was conducted in January 2023 as part of the institutional Diamond Jubilee academic programs. Research in medical education and institutional collaborations in this field are additional areas of focus of the department.