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Medical Experts Recommend Leadership
and Communications Skills as Integral Part of Postgraduate Training
It is being internationally recognised that producing technically proficient
and professionally competent doctors means not only the acquisition
of professional skills but also the abilities of critical thinking,
communication, effective management of personal and external resources
and of innovation.
This was stated by Dr. Saad Bashir Associate Professor and Chief of Neurosurgery at Aga
Khan University (AKU), at the postgraduate medical education conference
titled 'Service and Scholarship: Striking the Balance in Postgraduate
Medical Education' at AKU on May 30, 2003.
Dr. Bashir added that trainee doctors are so occupied
in providing clinical services that the areas of critical thinking,
communications, and skills in effective management, are never given
the importance they deserve. "The issue is how to incorporate
all this in the training of young doctors," he suggested.
The conference brought together national experts including, Dr. Camer
Vellani of AKU, Dr. Fozia
Qureshi, Ziauddin Medical University, Dr. Azher
Ahmed, Baqai Medical College, Dr. Tasleem
Akhter, PMRC, and Dr. Syeda
Kauser, CPSP, to discuss this issue that
is being debated all over the world. Ideas were discussed
and recommendations made, that would be incorporated in postgraduate
medical training programmes, so that universities and colleges produce
doctors of the highest standards, researchers, teachers and trainers
who are better able to cope with and lead the changes occurring
in the field of medicine.
Experts recommended that scholarships should be recognised as an integral part
of medical practice not only by trainees but also by the trainers
and the institutions where they work. This will allow an enabling
environment to develop researchers, thinkers and leaders.
"In this regard, it is of fundamental importance that as professionals,
and as a society, we give value to critical thinking, a spirit of
inquiry and jettison the centuries-old baggage of blind obedience
to authority," added Dr. Bashir.
The conference, a collaborative effort, should lead to the formulation of concrete
proposals which could become part of postgraduate medical training
programmes not only in the institutions that participated
in this conference but also in those across Pakistan.
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