The National Medical Commission or the NMC of India is on a roll as the year ends. New regulations, guidelines and notices are being issued frequently for the past few days.
In a notice dated 27th of December, 2022, the NMC has announced new revised guidelines for Medical Educational Units or MEUs.
MEUs are an integral part of the medical education system in the country and are indispensable in ensuring provision of advanced medical education.
As per the previous NMC Guidelines, in a medical college, a minimum of four MEU Resource faculty must have additional qualification like ACME/FAIMER or equivalent.
ACME: Advanced Course in Medical Education
ACME stands for Advanced Course in Medical Education and was introduced in 2014. The Advance Course in Medical Education is a project-based course of one-year duration whereas FAIMER refers to Foundation for Advancement of International Medical Education and Research (FAIMER).
The Revised Guidelines exempt faculty members from obtaining additional qualifications like an Advance Course in Medical Education (ACME) or a Foundation for Advancement of International Medical Education and Research (FAIMER) fellowship until January 31, 2024.
NMC: National Medical Commission
According to NMC, this decision has been taken as a large number of medical colleges were not fulfilling the requirements of having a minimum of 4 MEU faculty with additional qualifications. As a result of this the rBCW training or the Revised Basic Course Workshop training of faculty was getting affected.
The following key points have been mentioned in the notice :
Medical colleges are to forward a list of their MEU resource faculty to their affiliated NMC designated Regional/Nodal Centers for approval. Once approved, no changes can be made till January 31st,2024.
Minimum 8 core faculty, including all cadres of faculty, are to be included in each MEU. The faculty must be trained in MCI Basic/Revised Basic Course in either the Nodal/Regional center or in a medical college under NMC.
Out of 8, at least 4 of the faculty should have additional qualifications like ACME and FAIMER. This clause has been exempted for the time period, till January 31st 2024.
The notice also issues guidelines regarding the infrastructure and Equipment to be maintained and regarding the MEU library as well.
With this change, the NMC hopes to provide an ample amount of time and resources to various Medical colleges around the country to meet the criteria and ensure advanced medical education and training.