Shaukat Ali Jawaid
Currently there is a movement for women empowerment all over the world and it is believed that since they form almost a majority of the population, they should be given equal opportunities to play their role in the overall development of the society. They have tremendous talent and capabilities which should be effectively utilized but this is only possible if they are provided opportunities in leadership role in every sphere.
At present in Pakistan girls are almost over 70% of all new admissions in medical and dental colleges but the number of women physicians in administrative as well as academic leadership positons is not much. It needs to be encouraged since they can better understand the problems and difficulties faced by women physicians. It is also not an easy job for working women to look after their families while performing their professional duties. At times, stress, problems, difficulties faced at work place adversely affect their family life and has serious consequences. Hence, greater care and understanding needs to be shown while dealing with women physicians.
However, it is also a fact that this increased enrollment of girls in medical and dental schools has also created some problems since many of them leave the profession after getting married due to various reasons, hence it is alleged that these seats are just waster. Pursuing postgraduate studies for many of them is not possible for various reasons but if some flexible training programme is introduced, we might succeed in attracting back this talent to continue practice of medicine. At the same time now in some cases, they can work from home as well. Providing the day care services for children at the work place, special transport facilities, flexible working hours are some of the initiatives if taken can be extremely rewarding. However, the women physicians have to compete and earn the coveted positons in administration and academic leadership role based on their competence and on merit.
Pakistan Association of Medical Editors(PAME) has been instrumental in training a large number women physicians to assume the responsibilities of Editorship of medical journals in which the University of Health Sciences has also played a vital role. Ever since PAME started the Certificate Courses in Medical Editing which is joint project of PAME and UHS, we have trained a large number of women physicians. Some of them proved to be extremely brilliant and after becoming Editors of various journals, worked hard and were able to get their journals recognized by the Higher Education Commission as well as by Pakistan Medical & Dental Council and we in PAME are proud of this accomplishment. Prof. Nadia Naseem at present Pro Vice Chancellor at University of Health Sciences was enrolled in the first batch and as a focal person for CME courses at UHS has been the central figure in this development. Many others which include Prof. Saira Afzal Chief Editor of Annals of King Edward Medical University, Prof. Tayyiba Waseem Editor of ESCULAPIO official journal of Services Institute of Medical Sciences, Prof. Mariya Hidayat Editor of Journal of University College of Medicine & Dentistry at University of Lahore, Prof. Adeela Shahid Editor of Shalamar Medical & Dental College, Prof. Irum Manzoor Editor of Journal of Akhtar Saeed Medical & Dental College, Prof. Gulfrin Waheed Principal and Editor of Journal of Avicenna Medical College all got trained during these CME courses.
Prof. Mahwish Arooj Principal of University College of Medicine and Dentistry at UOL is also one of our alumnus and we are proud of the fact that she is also holding the coveted positon of Principal thus in a much better positon like Prof. Gulfrin Waheed to promote the discipline of medical journalism in their respective institutions. Some other distinguished women physicians who got trained in medical editing include Prof. Sherin Jawaid, Dr. Noori-e-Kiran Haris, Prof. Saba Tariq and Prof.Sundus Tariq, Dr. Farah and Dr. Beenish Altaf from Faisalabad, Prof. Nazish Imran from Lahore, Dr. Neelofer from Lahore, Dr. Memoona Mansoor from Islamabad, Prof. Musarat Riaz from Karachi, Prof. Zille Huma and Dr. Najma Baseer from Khyber Medical University, Rehana Khadim Editor Pakistan Armed Forces Medical Journal, Dr. Saima Aleem from Peshawar, Prof.Afshan Shahid and Dr. Afeefa Ehsan, Maham Javed, Dr. Saima Chaudhry from Lahore, Prof. Nabiha Farasat from Quetta are among many other women physicians that PAME and UHS has trained. They are doing a wonderful job.
At the recently held 6th PAME National Conference on Medical Journals it was decided by the PAME leadership to give responsibility of organizing the conference to these women physicians trained as Editors and they were given free hand. They were asked to select their own teams for various tasks and work as a team while PAME will provide them the guidance if needed. They did a wonderful job and it was for the first time in the history of PAME that we saw such a great enthusiasm. A record number of over two dozen Pre-Conference workshops were organized in numerous medical institutions of Lahore, Dr Noor-e-Kiran from Faisalabad had online workshops which were all very well attended. The average attendance at these workshops was from twenty-five to thirty. The credit for this of course goes to Prof. Saira Afzal member of the scientific committee headed by Prof. Jamshed Akhtar who was looking after these workshops and Prof.Nadia Naseem at UHS. Prof. Saira Afzal encouraged many faculty members in medical institutions of Lahore to organize these pre-conference workshops.
PAME in principal had decided and this decision was also conveyed to the organizers of these workshops that PAME will not provide any financial assistance to them nor it would like to have any funds if they generated through registration for these workshops. Whether to have some registration fee or not was also left to the workshop organizers and they were also free to select facilitators. It all worked well. They were provided template for pre-conference workshops which they could use but were instructed to keep up professional ethics and no pictures of institution heads or organizers of the workshops as well as the facilitator were to be displayed on announcements. It was gratifying to note that all of them followed these instructions. They were also asked to provide a list of the workshop participants, ensure their attendance so that later they can be issued Certificates for which a template was finalized. Organizers of the workshops were asked to share the e Certificates after the workshop among the participants. All this will go a long way in promoting the aims and objectives of PAME.
Thus University of Health Sciences deserve to be commended for providing this training facility to women physicians so that they can show their talent in the field of medical journalism as well. PAME had carefully selected UHS for this joint initiative and we wanted to have this programme at a public sector university in Lahore so that candidates from all over the country can get training. Development and decision making in the public sector is at time very slow but it also has many advantages because the fees can be fixed which is affordable for the candidates.
PAME leadership is determined to continue this CME course which will Inshallah lead to Diploma in Medical Journalism and later on it may be converted into Masters programme once the Department of Medical Journalism being established at UHS becomes fully functional. PAME is grateful to Prof.Maj Gen. Muhammad Aslam former Vice Chancellor of UHS in whose tenure this programme was conceived and finalized, Prof. Javed Akram another former Vice Chancellor of UHS who got it implemented and the current Vice Chancellor Prof. Ahsan Waheed Rathore who has not only continued to provide the much needed support for this programme but also assured to get the Dept. of Medical Journalism established and make it functional as soon as possible. Necessary funds, human resource is being acquired and hope we will realize this dream in the next few months.
Prof. Jamshed Akhtar, Prof. Akhtar Sherin, Prof. Maj. Gen.Aslam, Dr. Fatema Jawad and Dr. Masood Jawaid are other members of the core committee running and managing these CME courses in which we have the valuable support of twenty-five senior researchers, faculty members from various medical universities in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. Prof. Ahmad Badar from Saudi Arabia is one of the important members who has always been very kind and provided useful feedback and guidance. This group of about twenty-five editors, researchers, faculty members also serve as Mentors for the candidates of CME courses. PAME is extremely grateful to all of them for their valuable contributions in helping, guiding and mentoring these candidates. Our objective remains to see that UHS one day becomes self-sufficient in faculty, facilitators, examiners and can continue these training programmes independently.
NO one is indispensable and we all should endeavor to train the new leadership. Looking at the talent that we have seen in the six batches of Certificate in Medical Editing, two batches of Certificate Course in Medical Editing and Journalism, we are hopeful that the days are not far off when UHS will achieve this objective. We in the PAME will always be there to provide any guidance and assistance whenever needed. UHS also enjoys the distinction of being the only other medical university in the EMRO Region after Shiraz University of Medical Sciences in Islamic Republic of Iran to have started this course. UHS will also get all the help and support from EMAME for this academic activity. PAME is also running an Online course in collaboration with CORTEACH for those who are unable to attend physically due to various reasons. However, in order to get enrolled in advance course at UHS they have to appear in a test before they can be selected.
