Some medical students who completed course work in Russia are unable to register for the mandatory internship in India. They have been knocking on the doors of officialdom for help, thus far unsuccessfully.
During the pandemic some students returned to India and continued the programme online as borders were closed and flights were not operated.
In Russia, medical students undergo a 6-year programme, comprising 12 semesters. Several students underwent the 11th semester online owing to the pandemic. They later returned to complete the course as the government conducts the final exam in 12th semester and they are evaluated by external examiners.
Those who completed coursework have since returned and also qualified in the Foreign Medical Graduate Examination. Such candidates may apply for internship in India. However, the Tamil Nadu Medical Council has refused to approve some students’ applications. Some among them with high scores have registered in New Delhi and have started interning in hospitals in that State.
A student from Chennai who qualified in the FMG in Dec 2021 is unable to register with TNMC yet. Several students from her batch had completed the provisional verification but her application was on hold as she had undergone online classes between Sept.1, 2020 and March 27, 2021.
She said she had reworked her online classes after returning to Russia and submitted a letter from her University to the Council as well. With the Directorate of Medical Education awarding CRRI seats according to seniority, she is worried about not being able to do internship.
A city-based educational consultant for Russian medical colleges said universities requested students to remain in the country to take the physical mode exam. Some students had approached his agency, he said, adding: “We are now trying to arrange for the additional data asked by the TNMC.”
Council president K. Senthil said it was about undergoing the mandatory clinical experience during medical education. “If students have missed an entire semester then they have to redo it,” he said. According to him more than 110 students, mainly from Russia and Georgia, who had returned to India were facing problems.
Some had done online classes for a few weeks or months but others had done an entire semester online and returned only to take the mandatory offline test.
“There are some who completed the course and returned to India despite the pandemic and they have been registered. The FMG is only a licentiate exam with objective type questions. It cannot test clinical knowledge. We are awaiting the National Medical Council guidelines as the Supreme Court had directed it to address the issue of students in Chinese universities within eight weeks,” he explained.
“Ideally a student who returned half-way during the course should go back and complete it entirely off line. Otherwise, the students would barely have clinical knowledge. In each semester a subject is taught. Can we bar the student from practising just the subject as the student did not undergo clinical experience,” he asked, adding: “It is about maintaining standards. We need guidelines from the NMC.”
