The Experience of Organizing Blood Donation Camp through Student Initiative.

INTRODUCTION: A blood donation camp was organized in the institute which was a student initiative and a street play on blood donation awareness was carried out at different parts of the institute. For this reason, the study aimed at assessing the knowledge, attitude, and practises among the voluntary donors was carried out to bring out further awareness programs. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study is a Cross-sectional analysis to know about the knowledge, attitude, and practises among the donors as well as collect information regarding the rare blood groups. The idea to conduct a blood donation camp at a tertiary care hospital in Amritsar was initiated by the students of the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th professional year and was implemented on February 8, 2018. On this day, two awareness street plays were carried out, first at the outpatient department area and then near the college entrance to spread the message about the benefits and necessity of blood donation. The activity of blood donation was executed by a group of 15 team members and the staff posted in the blood bank of the institute. Each donor was taken care of by looking after any postdonation weakness or nausea plus were also provided with refreshments. At the end, feedback forms were handed over and 50 such filled forms were collected. RESULTS: Out of the 50 donors, there were 21 male (42%) and 29 females (58%), with a mean age of 21.45 ± 1.35 years. It was recognized that, among 50 donors, 52% of the donors have not donated in the last 2 years while 58% of the donors would voluntarily like to donate blood again. It was seen that 52% of the donors had fear of needles acting as a hindrance for the blood donation. CONCLUSION: My experience during the whole journey of the initiative was quite enlightening. Looking at the enthusiasm of the donors and the organizing team, it also encouraged the patients' relatives and professors to come forward for the donation. The success of the event has further encouraged me to carry out such more awareness projects in the future.

Effectiveness of Rajyoga meditation as an adjunct to first-line treatment in patients with obsessive compulsive disorder.

BACKGROUND: Yoga is a set of mental, physical, and spiritual practices with its origin in ancient India. The renewed interest in Yoga has led to the exploration of its benefits in a variety of psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, depression, and anxiety disorders. There is a dearth of literature on the effect of yoga in obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) in the Indian context. AIM: The present study was conducted to find out the efficacy of Rajyoga meditation (RM) as an adjunct to the first-line treatment in the treatment of OCD. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Patients with OCD (diagnosed according to Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders fifth edition) were divided into two groups - (i) The meditation group (MG), which included 28 patients and (ii) The nonmeditative group (NMG), which included 22 patients. MG practiced RM protocol for 3 months duration in addition to the pharmacological treatment. The NMG continued on pharmacological management as usual. The symptomatology was assessed at baseline and 3 months using the Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS). RESULTS: At 3 months, both groups demonstrated improvement in symptoms. The improvement in MG was statistically significant with a change of 9.0 ± 3.16 in Y-BOCS and a 49.76 ± 9.52% reduction in symptoms. Improvement scores of NMG were also statistically significant with a change of 3.13 ± 2.59 in Y-BOCS and 18.09 ± 14.69% reduction in symptoms. MG showed significantly more improvement in Y-BOCS scores (49.76 ± 9.52) as compared to NMG (18.09 ± 14.69) using the student's paired t-test (P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: The present study suggests that the RM is an effective adjunctive therapy to reduce obsessions and compulsions in patients with OCD.

Effective use of pause procedure to enhance student engagement and learning.

INTRODUCTION: Active learning strategies have been documented to enhance learning. We created an active learning environment in neuromuscular physiology lectures for first year medical students by using 'Pause Procedure'. MATERIALS AND METHODS: One hundred and fifty medical students class is divided into two Groups (Group A and Group B) and taught in different classes. Each lecture of group A (experimental Group) undergraduate first year medical students was divided into short presentations of 12-15 min each. Each presentation was followed by a pause of 2-3min, three times in a 50 min lecture. During the pauses students worked in pairs to discuss and rework their notes. Any queries were directed towards the teacher and discussed forthwith. At the end of each lecture students were given 2-3 minutes to write down the key points they remembered about the lecture (free-recall). Fifteen days after completion of the lectures a 30 item MCQ test was administered to measure long term recall. Group B (control Group) received the same lectures without the use of pause procedure and was similarly tested. RESULTS: Experimental Group students did significantly better on the MCQ test (p-value<0.05) in comparison to the control Group. Most of the students (83.6%) agreed that the 'pause procedure' helped them to enhance lecture recall. CONCLUSION: Pause procedure is a good active learning strategy which helps students review their notes, reflect on them, discuss and explain the key ideas with their partners. Moreover, it requires only 6-7 min of the classroom time and can significantly enhance student learning.