Students’ feedback on the foundation course in competency based medical education curriculum

The Medical Council of India (MCI) has formulated a new Competency Based Medical Education (CBME) Curriculum for the Indian Medical Graduates with an objective of making medical education outcome based. A one month long Foundation Course (FC) is a hallmark of this CBME which is implemented during the first month of first professional MBBS studies. The objective is to acquaint, allay apprehension and prepare freshers for further studies using andragogical and heutagogical approaches. The MCI also released the guidelines for the medical colleges for uniform conduct of FC across the country. The FC was divided into six modules, i.e. Orientation Module, Skills Module, Community orientation module, Professional Development and Ethics Module (P and E), Enhancement of Language and Computer Skills Module, and Sports and extracurricular activities. A total of 175 hours were allotted to these modules. Like every institute, our institute also developed the implementation program and time-table of FC using MCI guidelines and taking into account the available resources. The FC at our institute was conducted from 1st August 2019 to 31st August 2019 and was meticulously planned and implemented. The effective implementation required committed efforts of 30 faculty members (12 Professors, 11 Associate Professors and 7 Assistant Professors), two language and one fine arts teacher, and 4 non-teaching members (Librarian, IT-personnel, Coach for sports and motivational Guru). The students were trained to write reflections daily in their log - books which are being analysed further.