A DEARTH OF POSTGRADUATE TEACHERS IN MEDICAL COLLEGES

It is a fact that it is not very easy to find quality teachers for post doctoral courses in particular, and even for postgraduate teaching in Medical Colleges. Good physicians and surgeons, after their M.Ch and DM are gobbled up by corporate hospitals leaving very few for teaching hospitals. There can be many reasons for this scarcity – poor remunerations, strange accountabilities, and fanciful rules of perks and promotions! But students are not to be blamed for that. So how do we maintain a high standard of education? What are the solutions?

I am sure that if you apply your mind you can substantially add on to my list, which is as follows:

1. Affiliate good corporate hospitals to teaching institutions. This will be a very bold step, but a very useful one. Not only M Ch and DM students but even MD and MS students can be benefited because the corporate hospitals are better equipped with both facilities and manpower. Why should a candidate going for MD Radiodiagnosis continue working in a teaching hospital which does not have a MRI unit? Why should he/she not be allowed rotation in a private/corporate hospital which has one?

2. Allow senior consultants in private sector to be part time teachers. This is a contentious issue as these guys will not be automatically welcomed by the full time teachers as they would say that the private guys will be enjoying the best of both the worlds. Yes, they will, but they will be invaluable in filling the void in the teaching staff.

3. At some stage E-medicine has to take a firm hold in medical education. Didactic lectures, case presentations, ward rounds and planning sessions can be arranged at a fixed time in each hospital and it can be beamed to hand held devices of MD, MS, DM, DNB and MCh students. Seminars and Journal clubs can similarly be organized every day by one hospital or the other and beamed to all students.

4. Each department has a MCI approved syllabus. Text books are there to assist but students do not know how to utilize the knowledge resource and how to apply this knowledge in clinical practice. This is what a medical teacher is supposed to do - help the students in achieving this goal. If departments cannot employ teachers in flesh and blood then they should at least have a list of E-teachers with whom the students can interact by software like Skype and discuss their subject or their patients. The students can also send a feedback about the quality of their interaction to the department / institution head so that the list and the hierarchy of the E-teachers can keep on changing continuously.

5. In surgical specialties every department cannot perform every type of surgery.  In Plastic Surgery today we are expected to teach Paediatric Plastic Surgery, Reconstructive Surgery, Burns, Hand Surgery, Micro-vascular Surgery, Cranio-maxillofacial Surgery, Uro-plastic Surgery, Onco-plastic Surgery, Aesthetic Surgery and Regenerative Surgery. No department can have specialist of each discipline. So it would be prudent to let the trainee do a rotation in different Plastic Surgery units and pick up the pearls of wisdom from multiple sources. No amount of newer faculty appointment can match this simple modification of the training programme.

6. If good people have to be attracted to teaching jobs, these jobs will have to be made more attractive. Research facilities will have to be added to clinical departments and research should be liberally funded. Research should be meticulously monitored, carelessness reprimanded and outstanding contributions applauded. Publication, citations and patents should be duly rewarded. Podium and poster presentations in state, national and international conferences should be valued and encouraged and these should be the factors in deciding future perks and promotions. Remember, if you pay peanuts.....you will only attract monkeys!

7. Today retirement is linked with age and a few state governments, when they failed to find teachers to fill the vacant positions increased the retirement age to 65 years and some private medical colleges went a step ahead and took it up to 70! Now retirement cannot be linked to age alone. Physical fitness, mental agility, surgical skills and up to date knowledge of the subject are all required to deem someone fit to continue in high and responsible positions. Some of the older teachers are priceless and invaluable and should be requested to continue but by law allowing everybody to be around is mindless. New talent brings new ideas and retaining deadwood stops the flow of the stream of knowledge.