‘Include anger mgmt in med courses’

LUCKNOW: A day after the KGMU MD (medicine) exam paper posed a 15-mark question on ‘Violence against doctors’, experts have suggested that anger management be a part of all medical courses.

“Its social issue and, keeping in view the present scenario, it is a must for every doctor to know how to manage anger of attendants,” said Dr PK Gupta, past president Indian Medical Association, Lucknow.

In the King George’s Medical University (KGMU) MD (medicine) final year exam the question was, “Violence against doctors: causes effects and solutions.”

This was the first time that such a question was asked in a KGMU paper. Dr Abbhishek Shukla, founder Aastha Hospice, said doctors should be familiar with not just anger management but also defence management, as in the current scenario, incidents of mob vandalising hospitals has become common.

“Now dozens of attendants accompany a patient. In case of causality, they sometimes damage property,” he said adding: “Having knowledge of anger management can help curb many such cases.”

“Some hospitals have started keeping more security personnel, including boxers, in the night that is the most vulnerable time for violent incidents,” said Dr Gupta. He said telling medicos how to pre-empt violence and mange initial anger can help build patient-doctor trust. “We need to be aware of the current scenario and education has to be designed accordingly,” he said.