NTR University : First T2Tprogram by Harvard teachers to train Indian medical faulty

Vijayawada: A hundred medical college teachers were imparted training in teaching skills by the Harvard Medical School(HMS) under its Training to Teacher(T2T) program at the Dr. NTR University of Health Sciences here, on Tuesday. The training which is to last for nine months will continue in the form of webinars and video conferences. The T2T faculty will come back towards the end of the course duration and hold another four-day workshop.

The ongoing workshop commenced at the University’s Conference Hall.

A one its kind teaching program for medical faculty teachers in the country, it comes as a boon to medical teachers, who usually learn the ropes of teaching over the years on their own and get no formal training in the field.

The Harvard School has been doing programs of a similar kind in West Asia, Hong Kong, mainland China and other countries. However, this happens to be its first in India.

Health University, Vice Chancellor, Dr Ravi Raju, said faculty members selected for the program were from eleven medical colleges of Andhra Pradesh. A few of the attending were designated professors of colleges. He said the problem with these teachers lay in the fact that they were self learners, who had acquired skills over a period of time and had no formal training in teaching.

Kenneth B. Christopher, the HMS T2T Program Director and Assistant Professor, Medicine said in most of these programs it had been observed that teachers initially reluctant, became active participants after a few sessions of active learning.

The workshop he said was all about the essential skill building required for teaching.

Venessa Bijol, another T2T Director and Assistant Professor of Pathology said that there was no language barrier with the faculty,as they all understood English.

Subha Ramani, another faculty member emphasized on the importance of a well trained faculty as it impacted patient care in a big way. Speaking about the ambit of doctor-patient communication, she emphasized on behavior being of utmost importance.

The T2T faculty praised the participating teachers, describing them as both focused and motivated. The workshop trained the faculty on the use of technology- as a teaching aid.

An examination would be conducted at the end of the course and certificates issued to the attending faculty, on the basis of performance reports TOI.

Mr. Ravi Raju said that the T2T faculty members had a session with the Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Monday, who showed keen interest on strengthening the program.