The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Medicos at GMC to get ‘dose’ in ethics

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Friday, Aug 08, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Medicos at GMC to get ‘dose’ in ethics

HYDERABAD: The would-be doctors of Gandhi Medical College are being given a healthy dose of lessons on morality and ethics, apart from techniques and tact to handle diseases, by their elders.

Not that earlier such innovative steps of imparting pearls of wisdom to medicos were not there, it’s just that now the seniors have decided to do it with a renewed vigour.

Start made

The present generation is good in acquiring and improving intelligence but they lack wisdom and this belief seems to be the driving force behind the decision to regularise such lessons on morality and ethics.

Already, the start has been made when the 2008-09 MBBS fresh batch of students attended a lecture on such issues on their first day in college.

Mandatory

The teaching faculty of the college firmly believes that just medical knowledge is not enough and they are also mooting the idea of ethics being an integral part of the curriculum.

In fact, recently, Andhra Pradesh Medical Council (APMC) has made it mandatory for pass-outs to procure Ethics Awareness Certificate, while registering to practice medicine in State.

“Earlier, we had ethics and medical history as part of the curriculum but not now. Students have this habit of just aiming to score 50 per cent in MBBS and becoming a doctor, which is wrong. A good doctor must be able to have a moral bend in life and that’s why such lessons are vital,” says Vice-Principal of Gandhi Medical College Dr. Pradeep Deshpande.

Certificates given

On Tuesday, about 300 doctors of the 2002 batch from the college were given similar certificates on ethics awareness by college Principal Dr. M. Narasing Rao.

Member of the Andhra Pradesh Medical Council Dr. Ramesh Reddy points out that the council has made it mandatory for all the students who have completed their MBBS course to learn ethics in medicine before procuring the certificate.

“The difference between a normal and a good doctor is ethics and morality. So the faculty is trying its best to introduce such concepts during the course of teaching regular medical subjects to the students,” they said.

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