Electives in Community Medicine: An Experience Share

Abstract

As per the revised Regulations on Graduate Medical Education 2019,integration of electives in the MBBS program has emerged as a promising strategy to enrich the learning experiences for the students. Electives are allotted at the end of Third year part I MBBS training in two settings:

1)In the basic sciences or research

2) In the clinical sciences or community

Epidemiological and community surveys was offered as an elective to sensitize the students by the Department of Community Medicine. A detailed plan was prepared and implemented ensuring smooth process during the elective period which included

a) Framing and finalising the research question,

b) Literature review

c) Understanding study designs

d)Sample size calculation

e) Designing the study tool

f) Addressing ethical issues

g) Data collection process

h) Data entry in the master chart

i) Analysing the results with discussion

j) Manuscript writing

Through this exercise of electives, students got an opportunity to develop a protocol for estimating the proportion of blindness due to cataract among elderly people in the field practice area of Rural Health and Training Centre, Mandur which is a treatable cause and assessed the social pathology behind cataract induced blindness.