Post Graduate Psychiatric Education in India - Current Practice and Future Directives

Abstract

In this evolving era of medical sciences, one must take a moment to go back to the roots and see where it all started and how the medical education in Psychiatry evolved over the years to reach where it is now. The first M.D. Psychiatry course was started 7 decades ago by Medical College of Patna in the year 1941. The Medical Council of India, a statutory organization founded in 1933, since provides direction for the development of psychiatric education, including its goals and standards. It has maintained a permanent Committee on Postgraduate Medical Education since 1956, whose job it is to create guidelines, study curricula, and the minimal standards for teaching facilities. Additionally, it upholds the calibre of instructors and tests given by colleges to ensure that standards are uniform.1 Today there are around 700 budding psychiatrists completed MD every year in our country.2
Masters in Psychiatry can be pursued under two courses in India- MD Course and DNB course, after completing the MBBS degree. The training of post-graduate students in psychiatry in India is greatly aided by general hospital psychiatry units (psychiatry units connected to medical colleges). In addition to this, mental institutions offer post-graduate psychiatry trainees teaching and training facilities.3 In today’s time there is a rise of super-specialty courses, which psychiatry graduates can now pursue in India itself, including DM as well as fellowships in the fields of Deaddiction, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Geriatric Mental Health and Forensic Psychiatry. The new era will see a shift to a more niche and specialized approach to both psychiatric training and clinical practice as well.