Owing to COVID 19 pandemic, all educational institutions including medical colleges were closed by the second week of March 2020 in Kerala, India. This college started online classes using various e-platforms by the third week of March. In this study, we report the barriers and perceptions of undergraduate students by an online questionnaire after 2.5 months of e-classes. The study participants were 364 students who responded in a week’s time. Most of the faculty used platforms like Google class room or recorded YouTube videos. The department of Physiology used the Impartus platform. Among the respondents 72.8% were using mobile data and 17.8% were using broadband facilities. Among network providers Jio was the most used. Only first year students were exposed to 3 different online platforms. Among those students, 63.6% reported in favor of Impartus, followed by YouTube and Google class room. Most of the students preferred recorded classes (69.2%) over live classes (33.5%). Submissions were mainly through the online platform itself (69.5%), email submission to the department (17%) or to the faculty (13.5%). Forty seven percent of the students wanted the classes to be of 30 to 45 minutes duration and 42% felt that the classes should be short and below 30 minutes. Only 28.3% of the students favored centralized online class by the university. Providing education to students cannot be discontinued for long. In the present study students are able to follow the online classes and have good learning experience on in the Didactic part. The medical educators could rise up to the challenge of continuing to teach even in times of crisis.
Background: Online education is prevalent in the country since the beginning of the 21st century. The outbreak of COVID-19, the government declared lockdown, and subsequent closing of institutions was unexpected, and it forced medical colleges to launch online programs for undergraduate courses. Due to the sudden shifting to online mode, most teaching staff members face the challenges of lacking online teaching experience, early preparation, or support from educational technology teams. This institution was in touch with the teachers and students through online mode, enquiring about their welfare and wellness. The present study focuses on concerns and confidences presented by the medical teaching staff on online medical education. Method: This study was conducted at Jubilee Mission Medical College & Research Institute, a medical college in central Kerala in south India. This institution conducted online classes for undergraduate (UG) medical students through Google classroom and YouTube platforms. There was 186 teaching staff from 21 departments involved in undergraduate (MBBS) teaching in this Institute. In this study, we collected information from the teaching staff about the online classes that they handled. A 27-point survey form was designed using a Google survey and mailed to them. The responses were collected in a week. The data collected was analyzed. Result: Fifty-one members responded. All responding teachers preferred regular classroom teaching due to the provision for better teacher-student interaction. However, one-third of respondents wanted the continuation of online classes, even after resuming classroom teaching. Out of 51 responses, 24 teachers graded the success of the programs more than 90%. The major suggestions received for further improvement of the program were that the departments provided their hardware and software, centralized online sessions for practical purposes, and collected regular feedback from students. Conclusion: The successes of our online teaching programs were limited to didactic teaching only. It could not replace the actual patient examination in a clinical setting, which involves communication skills and emotional relationships. This adversary must be converted into an opportunity to develop e-learning programs. This pandemic should open our eyes, so we learn from it and be better prepared for the future.
Background: Though India’s position in research is notable, it is poor in medical research, barring four centers of excellence. Where the priority for the Government is providing universal health care and for a postgraduate (PG) is becoming a busy clinician, the research remains a low priority. Getting published is an incentive for researchers, and its experience during the training period will be valuable. Research by practitioners in the field is a need in low-and middle-income (LAMI) countries to find workable solutions to local problems. Objectives: The objectives of this study were to develop a system for sustained support and evaluation of the dissertation and to examine its impact on getting published by PG students. Methods: In this prospective study, all 27 PG students of 2015 Batch were given support throughout their six-semester course. Participants were PG students registered for the course in 2015. This included orientation for guides, research methodology (RM) for students and pre-submission (synopsis) external review in the first semester; mid second-year review in the fourth semester and pre-submission (final dissertation), and selection for award and workshop for paper submission in the fifth semester. Results: Before appearing for the final examination in 2018, all 27 students prepared papers out of their dissertations and submitted them to the journals. From April 2019, 19 papers were published, and eight were in various stages of publication. Conclusions: Given sustained guidance and support from the institution, students perform very well, leading to improved publication status.
Background: Construction industry chiefly depends on the cement. The constituents in the cement have various health effects in the exposed group. The present study focused to realize the health effects of cement exposure and duration of exposure.Methods: The sample size was 831 male workers. The labourers included were construction workers (masons, helpers and concrete mixers) and cement loading and unloading workers. They were categorized in to five groups which were 5-9, 10-14, 15-19, 20-24 and 25+ years based on the duration of exposure to cement. Health hazards among these labourers were categorized in to lung function impairment symptoms, cutaneous symptoms and other symptoms.Results: High frequency of respiratory tract ailments (persistent cough 54%, breathlessness 47%) was observed among loading workers as they were handling cement dust. Burning was the most observed one in concrete mixer (70%), hair loss and change in hair colour was observed in 60% of all categories of workers. Skin related ailments were more prevalent among masons, helpers and concrete mixers.Conclusions: The frequency symptoms had correlation with their nature of work in the construction industry. Prolonged exposure to hazardous substances will decline the efficiency of labourers by malfunctioning their physiological functions. Proper awareness about the hazardous substances and well taken precautions among these labours can enhance their efficacy and wellbeing.
UNSTRUCTURED The emergence of new lineages of corona virus over the different continents has illustrated a significant public health concern. These new strains have a higher rate of transmissibility and have become dominant within a short period of time. The virus strains were also witnessed with an extensive range of mutations in the spike (S) protein, particularly in the receptor-binding domain (RBD) and amino-terminal domain (NTD). The studies concerning the genomic epidemiology of the COVID-19 virus have assisted the scientific community to unveil the evolutionary aspect of viruses and track the transmission dynamics over the world. At present all the mutations are vaccine sensitive, but vaccine-resistant variety may emerge at any time. It is very important that we should close the door quickly, although, strategic problems are there. Mutations are more possible in partially vaccinated areas rather than fully vaccinated areas. The present policy of vaccinating on an age structure leaves many non-vaccinated in the same home. In a population with very few vaccinated people there are viruses in many hosts and the chances of mutation is high. If the population is fully vaccinated, the virus is eradicated from that community and hence mutation chances are less. This locality specific fast and total vaccination will curtail the mutagenesity of the virus, lead to its eradication and to be preferred rather than vaccinating based on age structure.
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