Perception and practice of the eight limbs of yoga in yoga teachers: A cross-sectional descriptive study.

Background: Yoga is an ancient wisdom that originated in India and encompasses eight limbs, including yama, niyama, asanas, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana, and samadhi. Despite its holistic nature, many studies on yoga tend to focus solely on its physical aspects, breathing practices, and meditation, neglecting other essential components. To address this gap, a study was conducted to determine the perception and practice of all eight limbs of yoga among yoga teachers. Method: A self-designed questionnaire containing 28 items was used for assessing the knowledge, perception, and practice of the eight limbs of yoga among yoga teachers. A total of 37 yoga teachers participated in the study. Cross-tabulation was performed to analyze the data. Results: The majority of participants (>80%) in this study on the practice of astanga yoga reported that all limbs of yoga were essential in their practice. However, there were varying degrees of emphasis placed on each limb. Pranayama (91.9%) and asana (89.2%) were given the most emphasis, while niyama (75.7%), yama (73%), pratyahara (70.3%), dhyana (70.3%), and dharana (64.9%) were given slightly less emphasis. Interestingly, those with more experience placed greater emphasis on various aspects of yoga. Conclusion: Practitioners should embrace all eight limbs of yoga when introducing it to new populations to increase access to yoga. This will help promote the benefits of yoga and make it more accessible to those who may benefit from it. Health professionals should have a comprehensive understanding of the holistic practice of yoga, including its ethics, postures, breath, mindfulness, and meditation, to promote its maximum benefits and avoid potentially harmful practices.

Trigger films to teach core competencies of ethics and professionalism to first-year medical and nursing students.

Professionalism and communication were formally introduced in India's Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC) as part of the five roles of an Indian medical graduate and 10 core competencies in the Bachelor of Science Nursing program. It may be challenging to teach the complexity of clinical medical ethics to undergraduate students at a young age in the absence of direct patient interaction. Trigger films (TFs) are brief (3-10 min) clips that have been used in the West to provoke debate, promote reflection, and assist trainees in dealing with ethical dilemmas. The aim of this study was to determine whether TFs can be used to teach professionalism and ethics to undergraduate medical and nursing students as an innovative and interesting tool and to see whether this results in any changes in knowledge. A 2-h module supported by an introductory PowerPoint presentation and using four TFs on the four pillars of ethics (beneficence, nonmaleficence, autonomy, and justice) was developed and piloted in the foundation course for the new cohort of medical and nursing students. Quantitative, open-ended feedback was taken from learners after module delivery, and knowledge was assessed with a retrospective pre-post questionnaire. The majority of students found TFs an innovative and interesting tool to teach medical ethics. There was a gain in knowledge of autonomy (52%), beneficence (48%), nonmaleficence (46%), and justice (38%). TFs can be effective tools to impart core competencies in ethics and professionalism to both nursing and medical students in the new CBC.NEW & NOTEWORTHY Teaching ethics is an important part of the medical curriculum, and since first-year students are not in direct contact with patients it is necessary to think of innovative methods that can be used to teach. We have done the pilot testing for the same, using trigger films among undergraduate medical and nursing students.

Unwelcomed and devalued: Preachers of exclusion plagiarize from documents of inclusion.

The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi published guidelines, titled "Report of the Expert Group for framing Guidelines for admission of candidates with benchmark disabilities in postgraduate courses at AIIMS, New Delhi", for doctors with disabilities seeking postgraduate admissions to the Institutions of National Importance. The expert group, which lacked representation of people with disabilities, in general, and doctors with disabilities, in particular, puts immense effort into justifying why trainees with disabilities must not join AIIMS, at times in bold and/or capital letters, and at other places, in an outright ableist language. In addition, there is blatant plagiarism from well-known advisories and guidelines which are known for promoting the inclusion of trainees with disabilities. Attitudinal barriers and biases remained incorrigible as sections of these documents were selectively abridged to justify prevailing exclusion practises. We link the connection of these members to the controversial National Medical Council guidelines for undergraduate admission of persons with specified disabilities, which were successfully challenged in courts, as well as to the identification of posts for employment at AIIMS. We justify disability accommodations by citing inclusive court interventions from India to emphasise that the notion of inclusive equality includes the provision for reasonable accommodations. It is high time that the motto "Nothing about us, without us" becomes a locus classicus for immediate change of these discriminatory guidelines, as well as the prescribing powers of such experts.