IN MY 25 YEARS of experience, I have come to realise that there are three essential ways I should keep upskilling myself―knowledge and surgical skills, procedural skills and soft skills. We all attend workshops and training programmes regularly to keep ourselves abreast of the latest in our fields and also try and understand how new technologies work. For instance, I learnt about critical care echocardiography, critical care ultrasound, bronchoscopy in the ICU and percutaneous tracheostomy, to name a few. I also learnt to interpret modern PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests and apply the results clinically because none of them was available in the early years of my practice. However, with changing times, I have come to accept that as doctors, we also need to learn how to project ourselves, the way we talk, look, conduct ourselves with patients. This, too, has considerably changed since I graduated close to 30 years ago. I was never taught this in my medical school. I need to learn how to build my image in this social media age.
Then there is upskilling through simulation-based learning. All developed countries are doing it, and we need to do it, too. In Australia, where I have a licence to practise, upskilling is a mandatory part of our yearly renewal of medical licence. It also involves a peer review, where doctors critically appraise each other based on their work and research. We also have mortality and morbidity meetings. Unfortunately, in India, there is hardly any upskilling in a simulation setting.
In the last 20 years, there has been such a phenomenal rise in the number of clinical and medical innovations that if we don’t upskill ourselves, we will simply lose out. And now, there are numerous ways to upskill. Earlier, all we could do was attend conferences and refer to journals. Now, we have all the resources right on our phones, at a fraction of the cost.
But only learning and building up on one’s knowledge isn’t sufficient in medicine. A doctor must also be taught how to use this knowledge in real world settings by way of simulation learning. And then comes the role of peer review―unless that happens, there is no credibility. And this is most important for 80 per cent of health care in India, where people have their own clinics and hospitals. It cannot only be left to medical colleges and institutions to upskill, but must involve participation of all doctors, irrespective of specialisation.
Every year, I make sure I do a structural upskilling of myself. It is a part of my annual improvement plan.
―As told to Pooja Biraia
Dr Pandit is chair, critical care and emergency medicine, Sir H.N. Reliance Foundation Hospital.