**4.4 Essential national health research**

While working with the students in the field, in 1995, few students approached me requesting that they have to understand the reason and ways to handle certain issues related to allotted families in the adopted villages. Consequently, using the participative approach, we decided to introduce an exercise on essential national health research with the undergraduate medical students. Accordingly, a 2-day workshop on research methodology was organized to give an overview on research methodology. At the same time, the students in the group (3–5 students) were asked to find out the health problems in the allotted families in the villages. In the second stage, students prioritized the health problems and reached to a consensus about the priority health problem to be addressed. In the group, the students were taught how to convert the health problem to a researchable question followed by developing a research protocol including literature search, objective of research, and detail methodology, and then the students conducted research projects in the groups under the guidance of the faculty members of the Department of Community Medicine.

Initially, a few students were interested to conduct research in a hospital setup. However, they were motivated to take up the research topic in the field. The emphasis was given to undertake simple interventions which may sometime require a behavioral change process so that the family members get full advantage of the research. It has been highly satisfying both for students and for the community. Thus, in true sense, a prototype of action research in the field has been developed for the undergraduate students, which has been refined during last 20 years, and the process of undertaking a research project is continuing in the adopted villages on a voluntary basis.

#### **4.5 Internship in rural area**

Interns are posted for 3 months at both the rural health and training center and the urban health training center out of their 12-month internship training program. The interns are exposed to primary health-care delivery and Kiran clinics so that they can sharpen their clinical competence with limited diagnostic facilities. They also interact with CBOs and VHNSC to appreciate their role in health promotion and disease prevention.

#### **4.6 Community-oriented education to nursing graduates and postgraduate students**

For last 8 years, we are providing rural orientation to the undergraduate and postgraduate nursing students on rotation basis at our rural health and training center, Anji and urban health center, Wardha.

During their posting at the Rural Health and Training Center (RHTC), they work very closely with the primary health center staff in the delivery of the RMNCH program. They also assist the PHC staff in conducting deliveries. They visit the rural community and interact with the CBOs and VHNSC. The faculty posted at the rural health and training center supervises their activities and conduct academic sessions in the afternoon. During the posting, they are also given a small project either in the school or in the community on priority health issues.

Similarly, during their posting at the urban health training center, they are allotted few families in the field. Under the guidance of faculty and social workers, they conduct family study and present their brief report in the end of posting. The students are also posted at the outpatient department (OPD) of the center for clinical exposure in rotation.

#### **4.7 Rural placement program for postgraduation admission**

In 1994, the Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences, Sewagram, decided that those who desired to do a postgraduate program at the MGIMS will have to serve for 2 years at a designated rural site. At the MGIMS, we selected nearly about 100 rural sites that were managed mainly by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) on a "No Profit No Loss" basis and were serving the marginalized community in the underserved rural area. We were able to identify these sites in every part of the country. The students are posted at these sites on a voluntary basis and while the doctors are working in the rural area, they are closely monitored by the faculty members of the MGIMS on a quarterly basis and sometimes the visits are paid to the NGO sites to ensure the proper utilization of manpower.

On successful completion of the 2-year program, the students were given admission to various PG programs. At the MGIMS, presently we have PG programs in all basic medical disciplines. However, the government has come out with the national entrance examination for admission to PG programs, and we have to keep this scheme in abeyance while our request to continue with the scheme is pending with the appropriate authority.
