Promoting Health through Community-Oriented Medical Education and Research
Department of Community Medicine
Kabir Medical College has made a major commitment to community oriented medical education. The Department of Community Health Sciences has developed field sites in urban and rural areas to support development of a community oriented medical curriculum. The overall objective of the CHS undergraduate medical curriculum is to Participate in the development of community based field programs to address problems through primary health care and disease control methods. Curriculum of community medicine is prepared in such a way as to prepare the students to become community oriented and thereby contributing effectively to the health care system of Pakistan. It continues through all five years of MBBS course. It includes the study and application of a wide range of social sciences, concepts of health economics, human behavior, socio-anthropology and social determinants of health and disease. The study of epidemiology, demography and bio statistics would also be introduced at appropriate stages. Special emphasis is given to the planning and management of primary health care systems and students are also involved in fieldwork under the guidance and supervision of trained staff.
Bridging Medical Knowledge with Socio-Economic Realities
Community Engagement & Health Education
Opportunities are also given to the students to become familiar with the socio-economic and health conditions of sub-standard urban centers besides introducing them to the rural areas and other under developed areas of Peshawar. Through such visits and surveys students are able to come in direct contact with people of these under privileged areas and are able to study in depth the structure and dynamics of communities, their socio-cultural and economic strains and their impact on the health of children and women, thereby developing a relationship of trust and mutual learning with members of the community so that the development programs are planned and implemented jointly with them. This would lead to self reliance in the community. The students are also be encouraged to participate in the preventive and curative care and management of patients and their families in the hospital’s out-patient department as well as in the primary health care field settings. In the later part of the course, the students in collaboration with the clinical departments participate in research oriented projects to evaluate the effectiveness of the primary health care systems which they helped to establish and also have the experience of practicing Family Medicine.
