INTRODUCTION
Community Medicine is an important subject of MBBS curriculum. Keeping in view its importance at the Pakistan Medical & Dental Council, the University Health Sciences and the National University of Medical Sciences have recommended that its teaching should commence in the first year and continue throughout the second, third and fourth years of MBBS. Community Medicine Department is housed in the third story of the college building. Sufficient space is available to fulfill its requirements for training in the subject. Building of the department provides accommodation for offices of the professorial staff, male and female lecturers and the departmental staff. Department has its own library and a well equipped museum.
Departmental Library: It has a rich and diverse collection of books encompassing different important domains ranging from simple ones to highly specialized disciplines of Community Medicine including current health issues, health and population policies as well as their impact on health. It also consists of concerned material published by different international and national health organizations such as UNICEF, WHO, NIH and population council of Pakistan.
This collection is available to faculty members of the department for continuous professional development and capacity building as well as to the students. With the passage of time more and more books / journals are being added to augment its resource capacity. It also provides reading materials in medical education which is being consulted by all faculty at every level of training of students to bring relevance to it.
Museum Cum Conference Room: Department has a very impressive and adequately equipped museum. It is studded with high class specimens, original samples, artistic charts / diagrams and fiber glass/ plaster of paris models. It is also strengthened with the audio visual aids. It has specimens, models, and charts regarding: nutrition, reproductive health, disinfectants, snake bite, dental health, school health, entomology, smoking, immunology, communicable diseases, water and sanitation. It provides a respectable space and conducive environment for conducting interactive teaching sessions for the students. It also caters for OSPE conduction during the professional examinations and in home assessments. The same is being used for departmental workshops and journal clubs.
Teaching Equipment: Department is also equipped with the latest/modern electronic teaching aids and gadgets such as six Pentium-4 computers along with a printer & a scanner, multi-media and overhead projector to facilitate smooth and effective training of the students and working of the department.
SEQs / MCQs Bank: Ever since the year 2006 the University of Health Sciences has been conducting Theory Examinations, in the subject of Community Medicine, comprising both MCQs and SEQs. Therefore, the department embarked upon creating its own bank of MCQs & SEQs long time back. As a result of dedicated hard work of all faculty members of the department, under the supervision of Professor Musarat Ramzan, Head of the Department we have been able to prepare more than 3,000 MCQs with keys to train the students accordingly and more than 500 SEQs. Students are also briefed about the keys / answers of SEQs to justify the correct answer. These MCQs and SEQs are scenario based and problem oriented. All the SEQs and MCQs are good C2 and higher level of cognition. This process is going on daily basis to enrich the capacity of the said bank. This department is also contributing towards the similar banks being maintained at CPSP, PMDC and UHS because most of the faculty is collaborating with the above mentioned as examiners, supervisors or convener.
Research:
- Under Graduate: Special emphasis is being given to this highly important field. Awareness about research among students is created during the first two years, in the third year the students are asked to carry out Field Surveys on a pre-designed questionnaire. They also learn compilation, interpretation, analysis and presentation of the collected information. Eventually in the fourth year training they are fully involved in the subject starting from outlining the research protocol up to statistical analysis.
- Post Graduate: A total of 34 articles have been published by the faculty of the department under the supervision of the HOD in international and PMDC recognized journals.
Practical Training: The students are conducting field visits for writing rapid appraisal reports. These are carried out under the guidance and supervision of faculty members and concerned technical experts as part of practical training of 4th year medical students.
Students’ Coaching & Counseling:
Activities of this department are not restricted only to lectures / demonstrations and field visits but also extended to interactive sessions and one to one sitting with students for counseling & guidance. A batch incharge is a faculty members who mentors her batch during the training.
Continuing Medical Education/ Faculty Training:
- C.P.S PART – II TRAINING: The case of recognition of the department for MCPS & FCPS part – II training was processed with CPSP and the department got accredited on the 8th October 2008. Up till now 5 candidates have passed FCPS and 4 passed MCPS. Currently a supervisor, four FCPS and two MCPS are working in different domains in the department.
Community Based/ Community Oriented Activities: The objectives of these activities are to:
- Contribute towards the community by active participation in different activities carried out within the setup.
- Create awareness among students about the importance of their role in such healthy activities.
- Impart practical training to the medical students about prevention and control of diseases.
- Involve PGTs in the management of community based preventive programme.
- Create awareness in Community about common health problems.
- Provide services to specific population groups such as school children and occupational workers
The narrated objectives have been achieved by creating following cells/ committees in the department which are working efficiently.
- Health Awareness Cell
- School Health Service Cell
- National Polio Eradication Committee
Under the auspices of these cells / committees following activities are being accomplished
- Workshop for the school teachers regarding recognition of early shifts from health amongst school children to seek timely medical advice.
- Designing and distribution of Pamphlets regarding different diseases in the community.
- Celebration of various health days.
- Poster competition by the students in the college.
- Participation in the research competition held at various undergraduate college.
- PINKTOBER celebration along with pink ribbon organization for last many years for creating awareness about Breast Cancer among female students and teachers of different teaching institutes of Wah Cantt.
- Dengue Awareness Campaign in collaboration with the Government of Punjab every year.
Contribution in the Health safety and environment week annually at POFs by providing awareness regarding prevention of occupational health issues.
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