AETCOM Workshop 2019-20.

A one day workshop on AETCOM (Attitude, Ethics, and Communication) was held on 28th September 2019 in association with Medical Humanities Group and Medical Education Unit of University College of Medical Sciences (UCMS), New Delhi. Dr. Amir Maroof Khan, Associate Professor of Department of Community Medicine and Coordinator of Medical Education Unit of UCMS, New Delhi and Dr. Satendra Singh, Associate Professor, Department of Physiology as well as working actively for Disability group were the guest faculty for this Faculty Development Program (FDP).

The MBBS curriculum has changed from the MBBS Batch of 2019 onwards, to include the Module of Attitude, ethics, and communication throughout the various phases of MBBS curriculum so as to make the Indian Medical Graduate a physician of the first contact. To take care of any apprehension of our faculty this FDP was organized by the Medical Education Unit of TMMC&RC, so as to orient the faculty on methods of undertaking session on AETCOM as well as to take care of assessment of the same. Two faculty members from the preclinical department and one faculty member from paraclinical as well as clinical department were nominated by the Head of the Department to participate in the FDP, A total of 24 faculty members were nominated and there were around 10 more faculty members of other departments who willingly participated in this workshop.

The workshop started with the introduction of faculty where two faculty members had to introduce each other as well as disclose one point of the said faculty which was not known earlier. The first session was of AETCOM- What and why? Was taken by Dr. Najmul Huda, Additional Dean Academics & Prof & Head of Department of Orthopedics and highlighted the need of AETCOM for our undergraduates with a role play. The next session on various teaching-learning methods in AETCOM was taken by Dr. Satendra Singh and the focuses were on various studies done on UG students and also on special population.

The session gave an insight into many ways by which AETCOM sessions could be conducted. This was followed by a session on Reflections by Dr. Prithpal Singh Matreja, Coordinator, MEU and Prof. & Head of Department of Pharmacology. The session differentiated between narratives and reflections as well as the roles of reflections and models used for reflection. This was followed by a session on Assessment of AETCOM by Dr. Amir, which focused on the assessment being objectives and ease of marking. The last session was on Theatre of Oppressed - An Innovative Way to conduct AETCOM where various models were displayed for role play. The workshop ended with the felicitation of the guest faculty from UCMS.