*4.2.5 Developing communication and leadership skill*

Family visits are the mainstay of the social service Camp. The morning and evening hours are allotted for family visits where they interview family members regarding nutrition, hygiene, adolescent health, geriatric health, and other related issues. This helps them in developing rapport with the family, empathy, and communication skills. They are prepared for these visits through having sessions on communications skills—active listening, reflecting, importance of asking open-ended question, appreciation, empathy, and not being judgmental through role plays. They are also taught about age-specific communication, that is, how to communicate with different age groups. During the camp's duration, the students convince and mobilize the families allotted to them to avail the benefit of screening and curative services provided in the camp. This helps them to practice persuasive communication and negotiation skill. The students also get an opportunity to negotiate behavior change with the family member in their subsequent monthly village visits.

During the social service camp, formal interactive sessions are also arranged on topics related to leadership skills, viz. activism, working as a change agent, problem-solving, team building, assertiveness, etc. Group exercises during the field work and classroom teaching also help them to learn team building, negotiation, and conflict resolution. In group exercises, students also identify their own strengths and weaknesses for the leadership skills and prepare a personal improvement plan.

#### *4.2.6 Impact of the practice*

• **Orientation of the medical students to rural life**: Staying in the village for 2 weeks, the students observe the real characteristics of the rural area such as simplicity, poverty, and illiteracy. They also observe the social and health problems of the villagers. This helps in creating rural bias among the medical students and to bring a change in their attitude.

	- The villagers understand the importance of environmental sanitation as the villagers have been trained for how to chlorinate the well water, how to dispose wastewater, garbage, and refuse. They are motivated to construct soak pits, sanitary latrines, smokeless chulah, etc.
	- Villagers realize the importance and practice of proper handwashing before cooking and before eating.
	- The health-seeking behavior of the family is changed. During illness, they seek medical help as early as possible from the nearest health facility.
	- They understand how to take care during pregnancy, postnatal period and to care for children.
	- The home delivery has been almost abolished.
	- The villagers do not allow their daughters to marry before reaching the age of 18 years.
	- The adolescent girls and women have been educated for the gender-specific hygiene practice.
	- Breastfeeding practices and immunization coverage have improved.
	- The villagers become aware of various communicable and noncommunicable diseases, diet and nutrition, immunization, etc.
