The National Medical Commission (NMC), which oversees medical education nationwide, has chosen to administer an online survey to medical students in order to gauge their mental health and well-being. The commission is deeply troubled by the consistent rise in suicides and depressions among medical students in all 50 states and Union Territories (UTs). On Friday, the NCM released a notice to the public instructing medical schools nationwide to take the appropriate action in relation to the survey administered to prospective physicians.
A national task force on medical students’ mental health and wellness has been established by the NMC anti-ragging cell. In a notice sent by Aujender Singh, member secretary of the national task force and deputy secretary of the Post-Graduate Medical Education Board (PGMEB), the commission noted that the task force had chosen to survey medical teachers and students online. The message shared a link to a Google form for input and asked all medical students and faculty members at the medical institutions to submit their answers by May 3rd.
The announcement states that the participants’ identities will be kept private and will not be disclosed to other parties. It further states that the task force would only utilize the information for analysis and recommendations in its report. The NMC stated that study and analysis will be conducted using the survey data collected. It further stated that specific answers will not be made public.
We have taken the necessary precautions to ensure the security of the data obtained in this survey, they stated as a disclaimer in the survey. Please note, however, that no transfer method over the internet or through electronic commerce is 100% safe. Just over a year ago, the NMC’s Right to Information (RTI) answer disclosed that, across the nation between 2019 and 2023, 64 MBBS and 55 postgraduate medical students had committed suicide.