Sunny Dua
Once when a would-be mother was scolded by head department of gynaecology of SMGS hospital, Jammu for asking too many questions about her first pregnancy, the lady immediately changed her doctor. She was of the opinion that lady doctor, now retired, might have handled thousands of cases but symptoms that she was seeking answers for were showing up on her body for the first time. The incident though looked small yet had a wider significance about how doctors should behave. Like these, many cases are mis(handled) across length and breadth of India despite the fact that several wonderful and compassionate humans are also making good doctors.
Coupled with such incidents is ever increasing reports of commissions exchanging hands between medical equipment suppliers and doctors and fast eroding ethics that perhaps might have stirred a debate as to how to improve conduct of those into this noble profession. Like many other countries, India had to finally revise its MBBS syllabus after about 21 years and introduce new curriculum that now has a course called Attitude, Ethics and Communication (AETCOM). This course introduced by Medical Council will run across years and will be mandatory from next year (2019) onwards.
Since ages, both medicine and teaching were considered most noble professions that involved compassion and commitment. Medicine students while were trained to be good doctors they were also advised to be good communicators so that they could make patients comfortable while diagnosing and advising them medicine. Earlier doctors instead of recommending multiple tests before diagnosing diseases used to check colour of tongue, pulse, heartbeat, colour of nails and eyes besides feeling belly to get the status of internal organs like stomach and intestines. It was only after this that in rare cases stool and urine tests or blood tests were recommended.
Without challenging ways of professions and questioning authenticity or needs of modern day tests one understands that behavioral changes in doctors must have made Medical Council introduce new undergraduate curriculum that’s going to be rolled out nationally from the 2019 session starting August. This course in wake of new diseases especially those related to lives will be a game changer. Those suffering from life consuming diseases need compassion, attention, sensitivity and passion besides regular medicines and in such a situation if doctors lack even the basic ethics it shatters whole family.
To quote another incident a doctor practicing in Delhi had once told his relative suffering from cancer that your (patient’s) days are numbered. This telephonic conversation not only shattered the patient but also left relatives high and dry who had not only concealed disease from patient but were trying to put up a brave front to prolong his life by may be few months of weeks. The patient gave up and finally breathed his last. This all was not only against ethics but against humanity that has left an indelible scar on the hearts of family members who lost their patient with whom they were struggling a lot very much here in Jammu.
Now that Board of Governors of Medical Council has approved the document known as “Competency-based UG Curriculum for the Indian Medical Graduate” it is hoped that unlike past where repetitive sessions were held, some on-hand training will also be imparted to doctors-in-making so that they reinvent doctor-patient relationship and adhere to medical ethics. Now that this course known as AETCOM will change the game, it is recommended that a similar nature of course be introduced for other professions especially engineers as well.
There had definitely been a decline in ethics amongst engineers as well. At a very first glance engineers are looked upon as Money-Minting-Machines (M3) especially those into Government services. Perhaps this is the reason why India since past over a century has not been able to produce engineers like Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya or Elattuvalapil Sreedharan. While we celebrate Sir Visvesvaraya’s birthday as Engineers Day, E Sreedharan is known as Metro-Man. Sir Visvesvaraya was not only considered as an able engineers but a scholar, statesman par excellence who rose to become Diwan of Mysore and was later awarded Bharat Ratna.
Like him, E Sreedharan who very recently declined an offer to work in Jammu and Kashmir is a retired Indian Engineering Service (IES) officer who’s credited for changing the face of public transport system in India. Konkan Railway and Delhi Metro are his projects which enabled him to earn Padma Shri, Padma Vibhushan and the Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur – an honour conferred upon him by the French Government. Why Jammu and Kashmir State has not been able to produce engineers close to like one of them is a question that needs to be answered.
Given the situation where majority of engineers in our state join services with an aim to build a bungalow for self, serve at desired places, manage postings, indulge in wasteful expenditure, make exaggerated bills, don’t adhere to engineering standards to give people safe roads or foot bills of those at the helm of affairs no iconic landmark can be constructed here. At a time when our able engineers have ensured that remotest of areas in the state get electricity or water besides road connectivity, the corrupt lot has earned quite a bad name for all of them collectively.
This is the reason that engineering colleges in Jammu and Kashmir besides rest of the country also need subjects like Attitude, Ethics and Communication (AETCOM) which medicine students are going to take from next year onwards. Speaking honestly, it was after the arrival of National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) in Jammu and Kashmir that people came to know about standards of safe and fast roads, until then our engineers had made us to understand that roads close at the drop of a single rain and clearance of landslides is a way of life. Thousands of lives have been consumed in J&K but state roads continue to be as unsafe as they were in 60s.
One need to answer why couldn’t J&K state produce engineers who would be entrusted with honors like Padamshree or Bharat Ratna? Why is that no engineering marvel built by our own engineers exists in Jammu and Kashmir state? Why is that roads here are not built taking into account simple principles of bending and banking of roads? Why are we not able to clean Dal Lake despite free flow of funds? Why are we not able to make functional city sewers – a basic of every city? Why is that no iconic building that could don city skyline or match any structure like Al-Burj stands tall in our state? Or why don’t we have modern day housing colonies that match any other well developed city in the world? And most importantly why has the level of city streets and roads raised by laying multiple layers of bitumen making shop-lines and houses look like those in Venice – capital of northern Italy’s Veneto region during rains.
The answer to these questions lies in poor planning, short-sightedness, corruption being rampant and celebrations of symbolic functions like that of Visvesvaraya’s birthdays by army of engineers as mere ritual. A state like Jammu and Kashmir where there’s immense potential; electrical, mechanical or civil engineers can do wonders by tapping hydroelectric power, going in for tunneling works, preparing geo-technical reports or finding ways to ease lot of works that require mechanical equipment. Strangely, works like that of architectural designs, structural designing, preparing geo-technical reports, surveying and many other are outsources to engineers or firms outside the state.
Many credible engineers will question these facts but then they must come out with reasons as to why we don’t have any Padanshree or Bharat Ratna from this fertile land that’s having immense potential. Having said, like MBBS curriculum will now be acknowledging importance of ethics, responsiveness to needs of patients and families and fine communication skills to engage the ailing, engineers too must be made to undergo similar courses feeling need of being innovative and honest to the core. There might be service discrepancies as compared to other states but that cannot be justified for being corrupt or incompetent.
Like the students of medical colleges from next year onwards will be assessed for their communication skills involving patients certain outcome-based learning skills must be introduced for engineers as well. According to new MBBS syllabus a month-long foundation course has been introduced to help students from diverse backgrounds transition better. To ease stress amongst students that leads to suicide, the new MBBS course also has a foundation course that seeks to prepare students for the MBBS duration. Similar situations are also faced by engineering students and they too need such courses which the All India Council for technical Education (AICTE) must understand and design accordingly.
For the information of readers the new medicine course is going to be learner-centric, patient-centric, gender-sensitive, outcome-oriented and environment appropriate. This way students will be exposed to clinical practices, electives and longitudinal care which in turn will help patients have a caring hand at their disposal. Dr Mohit Arora, cardiac surgeon on the incorporation of Medical ethics in MBBS curriculum said this is a welcome step and need of hour. Seeing the present senecio this will help in a stronger Patient doctor relationship, he added. The emphasis will be more on a practical approach in MBBS studies than therotical approach. This will go a long way in helping trianees to have a more sympathietic and practical approach towards society, Dr Mohit asserted.
Rather ethical training should be introduced at all levels to have a more patient and well disciplined society, he added. It is hoped that AICTE, seeing the new course of medicine students designed by All India Medical Council (AIMC) will have a well-designed curriculum of ethics for #EngineersToo because we too want to break the jinx and show the world how nations are built by engineers.
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