The University of Health Sciences (UHS), has launched the syllabi and examination format of newly introduced subject of Behavioural Sciences in the IInd professional examinations of both MBBS and BDS.
The students of 2nd professional MBBS and BDS will have to take the examination in the subject of Behavioural Sciences of total 100 mark from 2007 and onwards. The examination will be a combination of multiple choice questions and objective structured examination or viva. Students will have to secure minimum 50-percent marks to pass the examination.
The topics included in the syllabus are:- bio-psycho-social model of health care, normality vs abnormality, roles of a doctor, desirable attitude in health professionals, sensation, perception, attention and concentration, communication, personality and its theories, intelligence and its growth, emotions, motivation, strategies to improve learning skills, stress and stressors, stress management, doctor-patient relationship, medical ethics, culture and medical practice, psychological reactions, breaking bad news, psychosocial aspects of health and disease, counselling, crisis intervention, and informational care.
UHS vice-chancellor Professor Malik Hussain Mubbashar, said that the introduction of behavioural sciences was a formal step the university had taken to restore parity and equip its graduates in areas such as influence of culture, religion and society on health and disease, communication skills, counselling and communicating with relatives of the patient, how to break bad news to the patients and their relatives and psycho-social aspects of hospitalisation, he added.
He said that UHS chairman board of governors, Professor Mahmood Ahmad had taken personal interest in the development of curriculum and developing sensitivity and need for introducing this vital discipline by organising workshops, panel discussions and lectures for both teachers as well as students of all the medical colleges prior to the launch of this initiative. Professor Mubbashar said that UHS had also formed its own independent faculty of behaviour sciences.