Time-bound promotions in Indian medical institutes: a mirage.

Incentives, pay hikes and timely promotions enhance the job performance of an employee. In medical institutes, too, satisfied teachers would train students in a better way leading to better equipped doctors and ultimately, greater patient satisfaction. A study in Malaysia links high levels of satisfaction of employees with good salary, promotions, and incentives.

Disparities in pay of medical teachers all over India: need for a central governing body.

While most professions have national level bodies governing the pay structure of their teachers, there is no functional body to govern the pay of medical teachers. The result is that the net pay of teachers in the central institutions (such as AIIMS, and the medical colleges of Chandigarh University etc) is higher than that of their counterparts in the medical colleges run by state governments. There is a central body, the Medical Council of India (MCI), which maintains standards of medical education all over the country.

Media portrayal of health professionals biased.

Over the last few years, the media have been repeatedly focusing on corruption in healthcare. Sometimes, speakers on television channels fling allegations at the entire medical community. This biased picture of pervasive corruption is resented by a majority of doctors.

Pattern of adverse events following immunization in an Indian teaching hospital.

Background: Vaccination is an essential component of the public health programs and among most cost effective medical intervention. Vaccines like other pharmaceutical product are not entirely risk free; while most known side effects are mild and non-serious. But some vaccines have been associated with very rare but serious side effect. So, there is a need of a surveillance program to monitor and record such events. Aims & Objective: To detect adverse events following immunizations (AEFI) in children and find vaccine responsible for them. Material and Methods: A one year, prospective, vaccine safety study was undertaken in 2011 covering a pediatric population who were administered vaccines. A two-phase telephone survey of all patients was conducted, comprising of an initial call at 1 week and a follow-up call at 30 days after the vaccine administration date. All AEFI were recorded in Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) form. Results: Of a total sample of 4320 children, ranging in age from 0 to 14 years, 10110 vaccine doses were given. Each child received 2.34 vaccines on an average. Out of 4320 children, 899 children (20.8%) suffered 1003 AEFI. The most frequent types of adverse reactions to vaccines were fever (34.33 per 1000 doses), excessive crying (30.95 per 1000 doses) and injection site swelling (18.57 per 1000 doses). AEFI rate per 1000 doses was 99.2%. Conclusion: Most of the adverse events reported were mild and non-serious. Establishment of national AEFI database can be a worthy long term goal in Indian context.

Academic counselling: Impact of an intervention program on medical students of pharmacology.

Background: Students are anxious and stressed during exams; so are not able to perform well in them. Counselling has been found to improve performance of students. Hence, we wanted to conduct academic counselling for medical students and evaluate it. Objective: To improve performance of medical students in exams through academic counselling (AC). Method: Faculty was trained on conducting AC through role play. A pre-test was taken to assess the baseline knowledge of students. AC of students was conducted. A post-test was then taken for the students. Marks of pre-test and post test were compared to see for improvement of students following our intervention. Feedback was taken from students on the effectiveness of counselling using a questionnaire based on 5-point Likert scale. Feedback was also taken from faculty. Results and interpretation: There was a marked improvement in post-test marks of students who underwent counselling. Feedback from students and faculties was positive. Conclusion: Faculty can guide students on study skills through AC. It can be conducted as formative feedback at mid-term or following internal exams of students.