Community as a classroom: Perception of an Indian medical graduate on family adoption program

Abstract

Background: The Family Adoption Program is recommended by the National Medical Commission (Undergraduate Medical Education Board) of India under Competency-Based Medical Education under the MBBS curriculum. It begins from their 1st Professional Year and continues till their 3rd Professional Year as a part of the curriculum of Community Medicine. The program aims to provide experimental learning opportunity to Indian Medical Graduate towards community-based health care and the program is expected to improve the communication skills of the students which helps in their professional growth, learning to be humane and empathize with the family they adopted. Objective: To know the perception of an Indian Medical Graduate on the Family Adoption Program. Methodology: A Google form was shared among the students to fill upon consent. All the students who have adopted at least one family during their professional course were included. Results: More than 97 % of the students have explained the purpose of the visit to the family. Nearly 90 % of the families were co-operative. One of the students quoted the reason for noncooperation as “according to the locals, after collection of information by the students, no action was taken by the concerned authorities to curb the health issues of the families such as free medication or consultation” while other student said, “Language barrier and trust”. More than 25 % of the students stated that one of the primary reasons as an obstacle to collect complete data was families lack of interest. The majority feel empathetic towards the family.

Keywords

• Community medicine
• Family adoption program
• Medical graduate
• Competency-based education