Competency – based Curriculum: Need & implications

Overview “Change before you have to” – suits well to the forthcoming curricular reforms from 2019 academic year for Undergraduate Medical education of our country. A shift from traditional to competency based curriculum was warranted in order to ensure competent health professionals as first contact physicians; a long lost glory of health care system of our country. The palpable need was realized unanimously for quite some time, backed by the vast expanse of literature advocating its necessity. The Proposed Graduate Medical Education regulation2019 is a giant leap to actualize the theory of Indian Medical Graduate – IMG as envisaged by Medical Council of India. A competent IMG, identified on the basis of being competent in performing five roles; namely Clinician, Leader & member of Health care team, Communicator, Lifelong learner and Professional are analogous to the roles identified by Medical graduates in Canada (CanMeds), US (ACGME) & UK (GMC). A total of 35 competencies are identified against each role and subsequently translated into subject specific competencies for deciphering the significance of various subjects in a medical curriculum. Professional competence is characterized by habitual and judicious use of communication, knowledge, technical skills, clinical reasoning, emotions, attitudes, values, attitudes and reflections. Besides knowledge, right set of skills and attitude are vital characteristics of a competent health professional, hence; AETCOM (Attitude, Ethics and Communication) module also finds its rightful place within the revised curriculum.