Each medical college would be obliged to make arrangements for meetings with parents of students henceforth.
The MCI, has, in the latest Regulations on Graduate Medical Education, 2012, mandated, for the first time, a two month foundation (or bridge) course for every student entering the system which aims at acclimatising students with the challenges of the medical profession and includes elements to make them comfortable in the classroom.
The document also states that medicine professors would need to allow students 40 hours of sports and extracurricular activities including yoga for stress management.
The most novel provision in the latest MBBS syllabus document 2012 is the two month foundation course whose aims include, "enhancing the language skills of students, their interpersonal relations, communication and stress management."
The course, to be offered at the start of the first professional, will orient students to the medical profession, alternate health systems in India and to medical ethics and attitudes. The element of family medicine will also be included in this course which will also talk about the national health priorities.
"The course is to prepare the new MBBS students, fresh from college, to prepare them for the new environment that awaits them in the profession. It will teach them on ethical issues and give the human touch required for doctors-to-be," Chairman of MCI's Board of Governors K K Talwar told PTI.
The document describes the foundation course as follows, "There shall be a bridge course termed as a foundation course to orient medical students to the MBBS programme and provide them with requisite knowledge, communication (including electronic), technical and language skills required for the programme."
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The document also includes a full module called professional development and ethics to which 35 hours have been dedicated during the period of MBBS study.
The students will also be periodically assessed as the document states, "Progress of medical students will be documented through structured periodic assessments that will include formative assessment."