Helping medical students become better doctors

Recently I was invited to deliver a lecture for residents of a specialty. The event was organized by members of a society of that specialty, and the editorial board members of the journal that this society runs. They had indicated that 80 residents had registered and there was a possibility of the number going up to around 100 residents. At that event, there were other speakers who were speaking on different aspects of research. 

I was given an hour to cover two topics. I usually ask for an hour for each of my topics. Recognizing that the hosts were trying to cover a lot in one day, I was happy to cover both in an hour. It of course meant that I had to do a fair amount of reworking of my presentations to see what would be the most important parts that I needed to retain and how I would crunch things. Again, I was glad to do this for such an event. 

On the day, I reached the venue and I was rather surprised to find only 15 residents there. And, the event was running late by an hour. It was disconcerting. I was hoping more people would walk in, but it was barely a couple more that did. I was thinking to myself "why am I doing so much for events like this". 

Later, I learned from the organizers that they had done similar events in other cities, and had had a much larger number of attendees. It was only in our city that the turn out was low. They also mentioned that sometimes seniors / faculty, do not let residents attend such events. (This often happens when there is a large patient load, but again, that is a more or less regular occurrence in India)  One of the leading officers of the Society and Journal said "We will keep doing this event, even if there are very few people".  I then decided that I too would help them - if they invited me another time I would go again!

In mid November, I conducted one workshop in a medical college in Patiala, near Chandigarh. Here we had a total of around 30 participants, mostly postgraduate residents and a small number of faculty members.I also delivered three lectures at an event organized by the Nursing Research Society of India for around 240 members of the Nursing profession - a mix of Postgraduate students, PhD Scholars and faculty

In early December, I delivered lectures at two colleges - one for those studying Ayurveda and one for those studying Homeopathy.The target audience were of 50 and 40 postgraduate residents.

Thank you again for your support!

I would once again remind - please do not donate to us via GlobalGiving, till the issue with the Govt of India gets resolved. We hope it does very soon, as GlobalGiving is important to us. 

If getting a tax exemption is not crucial to you, do consider donating to us directly via - https://www.qmed.ngo/donate-dm

Wishing a you a great holiday season!

Vasumathi