NMC revises guidelines for medical faculty development programmes; renames rBCW as BCME

NEW DELHI : The Undergraduate Medical Education Board (UGMEB) of the National Medical Commission (NMC) has revised the guidelines for conduct of medical faculty development programmes such as Basic Course in Medical Education (BCME), Advance course in medical education (ACME), and Curriculum Implementation Support Programme (CISP). As part of the new guidelines, the board renamed the Revised Basic Course Workshop as Basic Course in Medical Education, changed the duration of ACME to six months, formed a new CISP-3 course and increased the renumeration of convenors. The board said that the new guidelines will come into force from April 17.

UGMEB suggested all nodal centres and regional centres to conduct a meeting to incorporate the revised guidelines and send a report by April 15. “lt is strongly recommended that conveners of NCs and RCs convene an in-house meeting of all stakeholders amongst its MEU and CC to incorporate these new guidelines. Concurrently, to sensitize the faculty of allocated colleges, online contact session(s) should also be arranged for their MEU and CC. A completion report to this effect is to be submitted to the academic cell, UGMEB by Conveners of NCs /RCs by 15th April 2023,” read an official notice from the board.

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The medical board informed that it has decided to resume ACME from July 1. From now onwards, the duration of the course will be six months including two onsite sessions of five days and three days, it said.

In order to recognize the effort in conducting the programmes, the "honorarium" of convenors, who were previously called coordinators, and resource faculty has been increased, the board said and sought attention of all concerned towards the financial aspect in conduct of FDPs.

New CISP course

“To ensure uniformity in conduct of FDP, training modules have been prepared by the expert group, incorporating certain common suggestions received from the environment. The training modules give a comprehensive overview of each topic besides outlining the obiectives of a topic which must be covered during these workshops. These training modules shall be shared separately with NCs and RCs,” UGMEB added.

The board constituted a committee including experts and professionals under the chairmanship of president, Aruna V Vanikar, to review the conduct of these FDPs and examine various aspects including financial. The committee recommendated rechristening of the revised Basic Course Workshop (rBCW) as BCME and a CISP-3 course to train additional clinical faculty for “better implementation of CBME since the students of CBME curriculum have entered their clinical phase.”

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“The recommendations of the expert group have now been accepted and approved by the competent authority. Accordingly, revised guidelines are herewith issued for conduct of various Faculty Development Programs by Nodal Centers, Regional Centers, and Medical Colleges,” it said.

UGMEB further informed that presently there are a total of 22 RCs and 12 NCs for FDPs. Explaining the decision to revise guidelines, it said, “With the passage of time, there have been sweeping changes in the field of medical technology and education too. Therefore a strong need was felt to review and revise the existing guidelines/syllabi etc. on conduct of various FDPs, namely rBCW, ACME and CISP.”