NMC proposes survey on students’ mental health

 The NMC has issued a public notice on Friday directing medical colleges across the country to do needful in connection with the survey among would-be doctors.

SNS | Kolkata | April 30, 2024 : NMC proposes survey on students’ mental health: File Photo

Deeply concerned with regular spurt in number of suicides and depressions among medical students across states and Union Territories (UTs), the National Medical Commission (NMC), regulating medical education in the country, has decided to conduct an online survey to assess their mental health and well-being.

The NCM has issued a public notice on Friday directing medical colleges across the country to do needful in connection with the survey among would-be doctors.

“Anti-ragging cell in NMC has constituted a national task force on mental and wellbeing of medical students. The task force has decided to conduct an online survey of medical students as well as faculty in medical colleges,” the commission stated in its notice issued by Aujender Singh, deputy secretary of the Post-Graduate Medical Education Board (PGMEB) and member secretary of the national task force.

Sharing a Google form link for feedback, the notice said that all the medical students and faculties of the medical colleges are requested to submit their responses by 3 May.

The identities of the participants will be kept confidential and will not be shared with anyone, according to the notice adding that it will be used by the task force only for analysis and recommendation in its report.

The NMC said that the data collected from the survey will be used for research and analysis.

Individual responses will not be shared publicly, it added.

However, as a disclaimer in the survey, they said, “We have taken appropriate measures to ensure the security of the data collected in this survey. However, please be aware that no method of transmission over the internet or electronic stores is 100 percent secure.”

Hardly one year ago, Right to Information (RTI) response from the NMC revealed that 64 MBBS and 55 postgraduate medical students had committed suicides in the country between 2019 and 2023.