Essential Skills in Postgraduate Medical Curriculum of Community Medicine

Introduction: Community-based education has been considered a suitable approach for health promotion and for requisite skill development regarding primary health care. In the current perspective, public health training and research, being two important aspects require immediate attention. Objective: To assess the skills of Postgraduate Students in the Department of Community Medicine in four Medical Colleges of Delhi. Materials and Methods: It was a cross-sectional study conducted among 70 Postgraduate Medical Students of 4 Medical Colleges in Delhi. The data were collected through a self administered, pretested questionnaire containing items assessing socio-demographic profile and skills essential for Postgraduate Students of Community Medicine. Results: There were 58.6% male and 29% female students. A large proportion of participants were having age range between 25-29 years. Ability 'to resolve conflict among the nurse at Primary Health Centre (PHC)', 'generate community participation', 'making thick and thin smear in case of fever', 'making a chart showing month-wise distribution of CuT', and 'calculating Chi-square of data', were found to significantly higher in 2nd and 3rd year PG students than first year PG students (p<0.01). Only 27.1% of students felt that they could test water sample for microbiological aspects while only 47.1% said that they could examine an industrial worker for pre-placement examination. Conclusions: PG students assessed themselves to possess necessary skills on communication, counselling and health education. However, many students lacked skills pertaining to occupational health and epidemiology.