AFSM Sarawak to offer complementary training to medical, nursing students
KUCHING: The proposed Academy for Silent Mentor (AFSM) Sarawak within the campus of Universiti Malaysia Sarawak ( Unimas) will serve as a complementary training centre for medical and nursing students.
Unimas deputy vice- chancellor ( Student Affairs and Alumni) Prof Mohd Fadzil Abdul Rahman said the centre would nurture good humanistic values and empathy among medical students at the university.
Silent mentors refer to individuals who pledge to donate their bodies to AFSM for the advancement of medical education.
“It is our goal to ensure quality teaching practice by promoting innovative development in teaching and learning with the aim of equipping students with knowledge and soft skills.
“AFSM Sarawak will serve as a resource centre for their anatomy and basic surgical skills as well as soft skills module as the students will be the volunteers at the centre,” he said before Local Government and Housing Minister Datuk Dr Sim Kui Hian launched the i- Silent Mentor Programme at a hotel here yesterday.
Mohd Fadzil believed that individuals who pledged to become silent mentors would have wanted medical and nursing students to become better doctors and nurses.
He said silent mentors would teach students to be respectful to their future patients just like how the students treat the silent mentors with respect.
According to him, the centre will also provide an avenue for postgraduate surgical skills training and advanced clinical development particularly for medical and health practitioners.
“It will be a training centre for live cadaveric workshops for surgical residents and trainees as well as surgeons nationwide.
“In addition, this centre will offer opportunities for skill enhancement to other allied health professionals such as physiotherapy and complementary medicine (practitioners) such as traditional Chinese medicine,” Mohd Fadzil said.
He also said AFSM Sarawak had the potential to develop in other aspects including the development of tissue banks and collaboration with other medical training centres and industries.
“I am confident that this partnership will be a start of a significant milestone for both Unimas and AFSM in our strategies to expand the quality of our teaching, learning and research in Malaysia,” he added.
Unimas and AFSM signed a memorandum of understanding last March 23 to set up AFSM Sarawak with the vision of ‘ Making a difference to the provision of healthcare with the touch of humanity and liberal arts through the altruistic teachings of silent mentors’. Also present was AFSM chairman Dr Chin Kin Fah.