Introduction:Like many other people based professions, communications skills are essential to medical practice also. Traditional medical teaching in India does not address communication skills which are most essential in dealing with patients. Communication skills can be taught to medical students to increase clinical competence.Objective:To teach basic communication and counseling skills to fourth-year undergraduate students to increase their clinical competence.Methodology:A total of 48, fourth-year MBBS students participated in the study. They were given training in basic communication and counseling skills and taught the patient interview technique according to Calgary–Cambridge guide format. Improvement in communication was assessed by change in pre- and post-training multiple choice questions, clinical patient examination, and Standardized Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire (SPSQ) scores.Results and Analysis:About 88% of the students in the sample were convinced of the importance of learning communication skills for effective practice. Almost 90% students were communicating better after training, as tested by improved SPSQ. As judged by Communication Skill Attitude Scale, student's positive attitude toward learning communication skill indicated that there is a necessity of communication skill training during undergraduate years.Conclusion:The ability to communicate effectively is a core competency for medical practitioners. Inculcating habits of good communications skill during formative years will help the medical students and future practitioners. Regular courses on effective communication should be included in the medical school curriculum.

In 2003 the New Opportunities Fund (NOF, now known as The Big Lottery) awarded £48 million to 70 home-based care teams to enable them to provide a range of services to allow children with non-malignant life-limiting conditions to be cared for at home. Four grants were made available in Bristol, North Somerset, South Gloucestershire and Bath and North East Somerset to enhance existing children's palliative care services. As there is limited evidence about the impact of palliative care services on psychological well-being, this study measured parental stress and the psychological wellbeing of parents of newly referred children with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions. Measures were administered at the point of referral and at 12 months follow-up. Statistical analysis indicated that there was no significant change at 12 month follow-up. The lack of deterioration in levels of parental stress and psychological wellbeing is viewed positively within this context. It is hypothesised that multi-agency and partnership working was a significant contributory factor in not increasing levels of parental stress and psychological wellbeing through social support.

While higher anxiety during antenatal period cause several maternal and foetal health related complications, lower anxiety levels are found to be associated with lesser “precautionary behaviours” and consequently greater risk of infection, during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this study, we aimed to assess rates and determinants of generalized anxiety at the time of the pandemic as well as anxiety that was specific to the context of being pregnant during the COVID-19 pandemic. (COVID-19-antenatal anxiety) in Indian women. This hospital-based, cross-sectional study using face-to-face interviews was conducted at antenatal clinics of five medical college hospitals in India. The Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 scale (GAD −7) and a customized scale to assess antenatal COVID-19 anxiety along with other tools that assessed social support and COVID-19-risk perception were administered to 620 pregnant women. We found that the percentage of women with moderate or severe anxiety based on GAD −7 was 11.1%. Multivariate analysis showed that higher COVID-19-risk perception, greater antenatal COVID-19 anxiety and lower perceived support significantly predicted moderate and severe generalized anxiety. Greater number of weeks of gestation, lower education, semiurban habitat and lower perceived social support were significant predictors of antenatal COVID-19 anxiety. We conclude that the rates of anxiety in pregnant women though not very high, still warrant attention and specific interventions.

Forensic facial reconstruction can be used to identify unknown human remains when other techniques fail. Through this article, we attempt to review the different methods of facial reconstruction reported in literature. There are several techniques of doing facial reconstruction, which vary from two dimensional drawings to three dimensional clay models. With the advancement in 3D technology, a rapid, efficient and cost effective computerized 3D forensic facial reconstruction method has been developed which has brought down the degree of error previously encountered. There are several methods of manual facial reconstruction but the combination Manchester method has been reported to be the best and most accurate method for the positive recognition of an individual. Recognition allows the involved government agencies to make a list of suspected victims'. This list can then be narrowed down and a positive identification may be given by the more conventional method of forensic medicine. Facial reconstruction allows visual identification by the individual's family and associates to become easy and more definite.

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