GENDER IN MEDICAL EDUCATION TRAINING 18th and 19th April 2022

Published Date : 05 May 2022
Gender in Medical Education (GME) is a collaborative effort along with CEHAT, DMER and MUHS towards mainstreaming gender in the existing MBBS curriculum. The current phase of the GME project scaled up to a national level envisages to create gender informed medical educators across the country. A physical training was conducted with 32 medical educators from five medical colleges from Maharashtra, Karnataka and Telangana as the first step towards the project. Professors, associate Professors and Assistant Professors across five disciplines Internal Medicine, Forensic and Toxicology, Psychiatry, Obstetrics and Gynaecology and Community Medicine participated in the training session.

The first day commenced with a session an introductory session on “Understanding Sex and Gender” by Dr Padma Bhate-Deosthali who clarified the biological and socially constructed difference between sex and gender along with concepts of intersectionality affecting woman’s health. The next session on “Recognising health care needs of LGBTQI+ communities” conducted by Aanchal Narang discussed issues within the community, their unmet health care needs and challenges pertaining to daily lives and seeking health care services. The day ended with a session on “Gender based violence and impact on health” delivered by Dr Sonali Deshpande, a GME trained Medical Educator, sensitised the participants on signs and symptoms of violence, health consequences due to violence and the therapeutic role of health care providers towards survivors of violence.

The second day of the training started with a session on “Recognising Gender as a Social determinant of Health” by Renu Khanna. She spoke about analysing health conditions through a gendered lens and applying the concept of intersectionality. Advocate Anubha Rastogi in the next session spoke about “Unpacking the conflation: MTP and PCPNDT Act” which clarified role of technology, its barriers to access safe abortion and the role of health care providers. The third session on “Ethical issues in medical practice” was held by Dr Anant Bhan. He spoke about doctor-patient communication, informed decision making and ethical aspects in medical research. The final session on “Gender and Mental health” delivered by Dr Shubhangi Parkar discussed the need for gender analysis in psychiatric teaching and New Mental Health Law.

Each session was conducted with either case studies or films enabling medical educators to reflect upon theoretical aspects and connect theory to teaching and clinical practice. The sessions were well received. Faculties across the discipline spoke about gaining clarity on engendering medical education through concepts learnt from the training.
Source:https://www.cehat.org/home/gallery/1651232137