DAK slams NExT exam’s impact on students’ clinical skills and patient care

SRINAGAR — With National Exit Test (NExT) set to replace MBBS final examination, Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK) on Saturday said that the NExT exam is not in the interest of medical students.

“The students are awarded MBBS degrees in medical colleges/universities only after rigorous training and examinations. There are so many exams that medical students have to write during their MBBS course, and the additional exit exam will put an undue burden on students,” said DAK President, Dr Nisar-ul-Hassan.

Dr Hassan said while medical students focus on both theoretical and clinical aspects of medical science under the existing system, the introduction of the NExT exam will force them to focus on the theoretical part of medicine during their course. “This is bound to hamper the development of their clinical skills,” he said.

The DAK President said the attendance of students in clinical postings and ward training will decrease as they will be solely focussing on this decisive exit exam. “This will affect their clinical judgement and communication skills which are so essential for patient care,” he said, adding, “We need doctors for patient care, not MCQ-cracking robots who have never seen clinics.”

Dr Nisar said the NExT exam is also intended to replace NEET-PG and it will not assess the students on basic subjects. It will only assess the clinical subjects and the applied aspects of non-clinical subjects.

“Knowledge of basic science is crucial for any medical and surgical specialty,” he said, adding, “After qualifying for post-graduation, students will be subjected to viva-voce which has the potential to bias.”

General Secretary, DAK, Dr Arshad Ali said the National Medical Commission has proposed the NExT exam which is set to replace MBBS final and NEET-PG examinations.

“NExT exam will be conducted in two parts. Part-I will be a theoretical examination with multiple choice questions and Part-II will be a practical examination/viva-voce conducted after the completion of an internship,” he said.