Development of Medical Education in Kathmandu Medical College

Background: When the Nepal Medical Council Act was enacted in 1964 it was accepted that it would be responsible for the regulation of Medical Education in Nepal. Subsequently followed the establishments of medical colleges of which Kathmandu Medical College is one.Present Status: Kathmandu Medical College started the MBBS program back in 1997 and has since then developed over the years. The development of medical education at Kathmandu Medical College ensued subsequently with the formation of Medical Education Unit Teacher Training Cell on June 2001. First batch of teacher’s training was held on February 2003 and since then the Medical Education Department has remained active. It was in the year 2014 that Medical Education Department was strengthened further and different committees and sub-committees were formed to develop the standard of medical education to new heights.Conclusion: The medical education has developed over the years as has been recorded in this paper. There are shortcomings to be corrected. For medical education to develop further, specific steps need to be carried out in future years to meet the challenges of international accreditation.

ELECTIVE EXPERIENCES OF FOREIGN MEDICAL STUDENTS AT THE TEACHING HOSPITAL OF TRIBHUVAN UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE OF MEDICINE, NEPAL

This paper has attempted to document and analyze the trend and experiences of foreignmedical students enrolled in the elective programme organized by the MedicalEducation Department (MED) at the Teaching Hospital of the Tribhuvan University(TUTH), Institute of Medicine in Kathmandu. Elective documents have been analyzedfor the period between 1997-2000 and a written questionnaire survey has beenadministered to a total of 73 foreign medical students who completed elective in theyear 2000. Over a period of four years a total of 268 students had undergone electiveposting in various departments of TUTH. More than half of the students (55%) camefrom European universities. More than 60% of respondents (n=73) considered theopportunity to see variety of patients as the main strength of the elective programme.Overwhelming majority of respondents (95%) rated the learning experience as goodor excellent. The most favoured department was the Internal Medicine. The studydemonstrates the unique value of elective in enriching student learning in medicaleducation. The traditional belief that all students should have a uniform curriculumthroughout their training has been largely challenged.1The insights gained couldperhaps, inspire medical schools to seriously think about introducing elective provisionas an essential component of their undergraduate curricula.1. Medical Education Department, TU Institute of Medicine.Address for correspondence : Dr. D. S. Pant, MD, MHPED,Assistant Director & Elective Programme Coordinator,Medical Education Department, TU Institute of Medicine,P.O. Box: 1524, Kathmandu, Nepal.Email: [email protected], Home Page: www.nchped.org.npKey Words: Elective terms, overseas elective, elective experience in developingcountries, core and elective options, undergraduate medical elective.