Community Medicine
-
Health of population is addressed by the field of medicine known as Community Medicine, which is a core component of the MBBS curriculum. It focuses on analyzing and quantifying the population’s health needs, their health status and then develop strategies that are appropriate, both technically and practically workable to prevent and control disease among population through Health Promotion, Education and Health Protection.
Vision: Department of Community Medicine strives to produce physicians who are efficient as public health administrators with quality leadership and management skills helping to foster community health.
- To develop a skilled and professional workforce that can put knowledge into practice and contribute to Universal Health Coverage for all.
- To initiate policy advocacy for health needs of the community
- To conduct and promote research on priority health problems
- To develop doctors with service orientation towards underprivileged communities
Mission: The faculty of the department are committed to provide outstanding educational experience in the course content of Community Medicine and allied Health Sciences at undergraduate and postgraduate level to develop competent, confident, compassionate professional through a competency-based model of education in acquiescence with the direction of The Maharashtra University of Health Sciences (MUHS), The National Medical Council (NMC) and Directorate of Medical Education & Research (DMER), Maharashtra State. Taking care of the tribal, underprivileged, and marginalized has continued to be at the centre of our philosophy.
Services: Since inception, the Department of Community Medicine at GMC Gondia has been striving to achieve excellence in the domains of academics, research and patient care. Rural and Urban health training centre provide primary care to the rural, urban, and tribal communities nearby and serve as a hub for the field training of institute’s Medical, Nursing and MPH students as well as for research into issues related to Community health. The department has successfully organised several scientific programmes like CMEs and Workshops as well as organised awareness activities on World Health Day, World TB Day, etc specially among school and college going students. The department in collaboration with N.K.P. Salve Institute of Medical Sciences & Research Centre successfully conducted camps for tribal population under Blossom Project by MUHS, Nashik. Assessment of coverage, compliance, and awareness of mass drug administration (MDA) campaign was carried out in neighbouring districts in coordination with Public Health.
Education: We use learner-centered teaching and learning strategies which include small group discussions, critical thinking, Self-directed learning, Problem based learning, Students and Interns seminars on important public health topics, Journal club, Objectively structured Practicals. In accordance with the NMC’s recent revised guidelines for teaching undergraduates, the Department has commenced the Family Adoption Programme for First year MBBS students in one of its field practice areas. NMC has permitted annual intake of seven post-graduate students and presently two postgraduates are undergoing training in the department. MPH, Nutrition course was started from the year 2019 at this Institute. A special training project of Skill India under Prime Minister Kaushalya Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) and Mukhyamantri Maha-Arogya Kaushaly Vikas Prashikhshan Karyakram was conducted for SSC/HSC passed students on Emergency Medical Technician, General Duty Assistant, Medical Record Assistant and Hospital Front Desk Coordinator.
Research: The Department encourages students in the domain of research and has guided and supervised several Short-Term Studentship (STS) projects under ICMR. The faculty is also involved in various research project funded by national and international funding agencies. All the faculty members are well versed in designing and conducting of various epidemiological studies and offer consultation to other department research activity including PG Dissertation-Methodology and Data analysis. Students are involved in various research projects during elective trainings of short duration.
Facilities: It houses unique and modern facilities such as Skill Lab and well-furnished and equipped research laboratory, Museum, Library. The demonstration room has Overhead projector, Slide projector, LCD, White Boards, Laptop, etc. with accommodation capacity of 50 students. There are 50 dissecting and 5 binocular Microscopes. The department has separate museum with a total of 30 models, 53 displayed charts, 81 Specimen and Exhibits. The department library is well equipped with 128 Text Books in Community Medicine, more than 32 Journals.
The Department currently has following two functional health centres with adjacent areas being its field practice areas :
- Urban Health Training Centre, Kumbhare Nagar: located approximately 3 kms from the Institution. This health Centre provides routine Out Patient Department (OPD), antenatal care, immunization and other special services. Resident Doctors and Interns posted in the centre are involved in regular community outreach activities focusing on preventive and promotive aspects of healthcare. The centre is also equipped with pharmacy with several essential medications available free of cost for patients.
- Rural Health Training Centre, Rajegaon: located approximately 20 kilometres from the Institution. Resident Doctors and Interns posted in this centre are involved in routine OPD services, antenatal care, delivery and immunization services in addition to conducting regular health awareness activities for patients visiting the centre. The RTHC has a sub-centre which is visited by Residents and Interns weekly on designated day for providing healthcare services in the community.
Resident Doctors of the Department and Medical Interns are posted in all these facilities on rotation.