Volume 13 Issues 7 July, 2023
My journey as a Psychiatry teacher or facilitator dates to my Early days of Residency at AIIMS Delhi (2013-2016), where we, as trainees, had to teach topics from Fish’s Clinical Psychopathology and Sim’s psychopathology to co-residents, with senior residents as moderators. Occasionally, we were asked to take clinical classes for medical undergraduates (UGs) and were involved in case discussions with medical-, nursing students, and psychology interns in the OPD. Importantly, we used to teach our batchmates during exams to facilitate mutual learning.
After finishing my MD, I continued as a senior resident (SR) at AIIMS Delhi (2016-2019), where my Evolution as a Teacher happened. Teaching and facilitating learning among the psychiatry trainees (PGs) was an integral part of SRship. We get more opportunities to teach students or assist faculty members in their classes there. I distinctly remember an incident that had a lasting impression on me. Once, I was requested by Prof. Anju Dhawan (Professor of Psychiatry & NDDTC, AIIMS Delhi) to accompany her for an MBBS lecture; upon reaching the lecture theatre, we found only one student had turned up for the class; despite that, Prof. Dhawan took that lecture stating, “why should the student suffer for the absence of rest of his classmates?”. This incident showed Prof. Dhawan’s seriousness and professionalism in teaching.
Following my SRship, I got an Appointment as a faculty member in the Dept of Psychiatry, AIIMS Bhopal (in 2019 till date), where I voluntarily took the responsibility of structuring the PG & UG training in psychiatry. At that time, in our department, we only had one SR, who often remained busy with clinical work & lacked much expertise in teaching the UGs & PGs. I started teaching PGs by discussing some landmark articles in psychiatry (TLC in Psychiatry Disorders by Nancy Andearsen, SFRS by CS Mellor, Salman Akhtar’s paper on the phenomenology of OCD, etc.), topics from Fish and Sim’s psychopathology, and lessons on history taking and MSE. During that time, I also tried to improvise the assessment methods of the UGs (during their ward leaving test), including obtaining their feedback. Later, the Department grew, and I was supported by our SRs (Dr. Akash and Dr. Jyotsna) and new faculty members (Dr. Ashish Pakhre & Dr. Tamonud Modak).
Although I was working to improve the quality of teaching/training (henceforth, training) of UGs and PGs, I was lacking in scientific ways of teaching & assessment. Concurrently, I attended some national (psychiatrists from AIIMS Rishikesh talking about psychiatry as a primary subject in their institute) and international conferences (World Psychiatry Congress, 2022, involving speakers like Prof. Sartorius and Mohan Isaac) which exposed me to the idea of how psychiatry education can be a seminal tool for overcoming psychiatry or mental health-related stigma?
Fortunately, during this period, I enrolled in IToP-STEPS (Indian Teachers of Psychiatry-Scholarship for Teachers towards Enrichment of Psychiatry Teaching Skills). Through this program, I learned the nuances of psychiatry teaching, including getting exposure to medical education literature from passionate and encountered Psychiatry teachers, such as Prof. Isaac, Dr Kishor M, Dr Vikas Menon, Dr Henal Shah, Dr Sujit Kar, and others.
The above exposure immensely helped me in Revamping Psychiatry Training at my institute. Now, we have started aligning our training program with the competency-based medical education (CBME) curriculum and have started introducing some of the novel teaching and assessment methods (integrated lectures, OSCEs, self-directed learning [SDL], daily log for interns, etc.). For PGs, we developed a logbook per the NMC’s guidelines, novel teaching (demonstrations, structured tutorials), and assessment methods (multi-source feedback, OSCEs, SDL, etc.). I could also form a team involving faculty members/SRs within the dept and outside for effective psychiatry training of the medical UGs & PGs. I was greatly supported (and still being supported) by my Head of the Department, Prof. (Dr.) Vijender Singh, who himself is an enthusiastic teacher.
Expanding psychiatry training through Research in Medical Education, We presented a symposium on psychiatry education and CBME in ANCIPS (2022). I also started writing research papers on medical education and psychiatry, where I learned about various enrichment activities in psychiatry for UGs globally (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajp.2023.103875). This paper formed the background of an intramural funded research on the Feasibility and Effectiveness of the early exposure psychiatry Enrichment Program for the 3rd semester MBBS student in our institute. In this program, we engaged medical students to various psychiatry and mental health domains through semi-formal sessions and novel teaching-learning methodologies, such as movie club, SDL, debates, and psychiatry research for UGs. The program helped us develop into an effective psychiatry teacher and allowed us to form a team within and outside the department. This program received an overwhelming response from the students and medical educators within the institute.
In the meantime, I also authored a couple of papers (2023-24) related to Problem-Based Learning and the Emerging Leadership Role of Psychiatry Teachers in Enhancing Medical Training along with my IToP-STEPS scholars (Dr. Nitisha Verma, Dr. Pooja Shatadal, Dr. Rahul Mishra). Within the dept, we also started collecting feedback from students/interns concerning their experience of psychiatry postings (some research papers on this are in the pipeline).
My work on medical education and (observable) commitment towards the cause fetched me Positions in Medical Education Platforms within the institute (as a Centre of Medical Education Technology member in AIIMS BHOPAL). I coordinated theSTEPS 2023 session and served as a co-mentor facultyfor a few STEPS sessions (in 2024). I was also designated as a resource person for a workshop on faculty development for CBME in Psychiatry (ANCIPS 2024 in Kochi) & MET workshops for the faculty members in AIIMS Bhopal, where I received positive feedback from the audience. We also conducted a CME on Innovation in Psychiatry Training and facilitated the Enrichment Program participants, which was highly appreciated by the medical educators, psychiatry teachers and psychiatry residents of Bhopal, and medical UGs.
My Learnings from this Teaching Odyssey include getting a command of medical education, learning the nuances of teaching, connecting with students, gaining some popularity (within the institute and outside), promoting mental health and psychiatry, including helping my Department in attaining (possibly) a superior position within the institute, learning from other passionate and skillful teachers, and leadership skills. My journey, however small or menial, will encourage other psychiatry teachers and early career psychiatrists to recognise the vitality of psychiatry teaching in their professional lives and the profound effect it can have in promoting psychiatry and mental health in our surroundings.
For Psychiatry to Grow, Psychiatrists have to Improve their Presence- Prof. (Dr.) Mohan Isaac (in one of the STEPS sessions, 2022)
Acknowledgement- I would like to extend my sincere thanks to Dr. Sujit Kar (Addl. Professor, Psychiatry at KGMU, Lucknow) for his valuable feedback on this article.
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