Preparedness and perspectives on the competency-based medical education among faculties of a government medical college in Assam

Abstract

Abstract: INTRODUCTION: Medical education in a global context as well as in India has evolved over a period of time. Adaption of competency-based medical education (CBME) through adequate faculty training and stakeholder participation can bring about vast changes in the ways of teaching and learning medical science. To gain more insight into the preparedness and perspectives of the faculties regarding the newly introduced CBME in a government medical college which is also an NMC Regional Centre, this study has been conducted. METHODOLOGY: Faculties of Jorhat Medical College, Assam who gave consent to participate were taken up for the study. A questionnaire was prepared and circulated among the eligible faculties. Faculties who were unable to submit even after three visits were excluded from the study. The total duration of data collection was 2 months. A total of 87 responses had been documented. RESULTS: 32.43% of the interviewed faculties had UG teaching experience of < 5 years, 67.56% more than 5 years, and 17.24% more than 20 years. 71.26% of the faculties have been trained in revised basic course workshops and 62.06% of the curriculum implementation support program. 62.06% of faculty members were able to both understand the concept and implement the CBME. Most of the faculties (65.51%) are of the opinion that having a separate logbook although highly feasible, it will be lowly acceptable. 80.45% of the faculties are of the opinion that early clinical exposure in Phase I will make the basic science curriculum more relevant. 66.67% of faculty views that around 1–3 years will be required for proper implementation of CBME. CONCLUSIONS: The majority of the faculty members in the study were prepared to take on the challenge of execution of CBME. They also had a positive perception of the change of the curriculum and the facelift given to it.