BPNI NEWS DESK, VADODARA: BPNI in collaboration with UNICEF and State Government of Gujarat organized a 3-day workshop on “Strengthening Pre-service Medical Education on IYCF” from 12th to 14th April at Vadodara.
The workshop, attended by the faculty members of undergraduate medical colleges of Gujarat, was organized with an intention to discuss the methodology for teaching global and national guidelines on Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF) practices, especially for the students of pediatrics, obstetrics, gynaecology and community medicine.
In her keynote address, Dr. Vikas Desai, additional director, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (GOI), emphasized that medical colleges should impart the knowledge of IYCF to the students and provide them the basic skills of IYCF. Each department of the medical colleges should portray the same idea and there should be an integrated approach in teaching. She reiterated that Integrated Management of Neo-natal Childhood Illness (IMNCI) and IYCF should be practiced in outpatients department (OPD) so that students could observe it. She also agreed to establish nutrition counseling centers in medical colleges, which will also serve the purposes of IYCF counseling.
All pre-service doctors should have the right skills and knowledge about IYCF. These basic skills are extremely important to be acquired by the doctors before they go to the community, informed UNICEF's regional representative Dr. Yogendra Mathur.
Prof. Dulari Gandhi of Baroda Medical College stressed the need of informing all the undergraduate medical students about IYCF. This, according to her, will help to promote, protect and support IYCF practices, especially in critical situations like preterm/LBW/ HIV+ve mother.
Dr. Tejinder Singh presented a training module of IYCF to be incorporated in teaching schedule and asked the participants to incorporate it in the formative and summative assessments. Before this, Prof. S. Aneja discussed the overview of the workshop and the necessities of the undergraduate medical students.
In the workshop, four modules of IYCF were discussed with the participants. These include, concept of IYCF and breastfeeding, early initiation of breastfeeding support, complementary feeding and infant milk substitutes and IMS Act. In the workshop, it was also discussed how to set up an IYCF counseling centers. A practical session was also organized in the hospital where participants interacted with the mothers.
In this zonal workshop, a total of 44 faculty members from the Department of Pediatrics, Community Medicine and Obstetrics and Gynaecology of 8 medical colleges of Gujarat participated.