DNB versus MS ! Where am i going ?

Here is an attempt to solve the issue :

The greatest confusion these days which every PG aspirant is struggling with –

Should I settle down with the rank I have attained in DNB or should I move ahead  with the coming NEET Results which has the clouds of suspicion hovering over. Here is one of the articles which can help you to solve the query :

DNB is now equivalent to MD/MS/MCh/DM degrees. The Diplomate of National Board (DNB) degrees have finally been equated with MD/MS and DM/M.Ch for teaching jobs. The DNB degrees in broad specialities will be completely equivalent to the MD/MS degree; and the DNB degree in super-specialities will be equivalent to the DM/M.Ch degree.The latest notification from the Government of India can be downloaded from here. The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) and the Medical Council of India (MCI) were earlier in a standoff. The MCI guidelines were formulated by the Post-graduate Medical Education Committee (the PG Committee) constituted under Section 20 of the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956. It was on the basis of the recommendation made by the PG Committee in 1993 that the Government stipulated in October 1994 that for teaching appointments in broad specialities, a DNB degree holder was required to have at least one year’s experience as tutor/ registrar/ demonstrator, or an equivalent post, in a recognised undergraduate medical college. Similarly, for teaching posts in super specialities, a DNB awardee was required to undergo two years’ training in a recognised medical college with recognised post-graduate degree course in the concerned speciality. The Health Ministry had said that its Diplomate of National Board degrees will be treated on a par with the MD/MS and DM/M.Ch degrees awarded by Indian medical institutions for the purpose of all appointments including teaching posts in medical institutions. Every year, there are about 25,000 medical graduates of whom 9,000 obtain MCI-approved post-graduate degrees and about 3,000 qualify with DNB degrees. But employment opportunities in medical institutions were significantly limited for DNB degree holders because of the MCI guidelines. There was also scope for at least doubling the number and also institute national programmes in areas where there is shortage of faculty. But the MCI directives prevented many institutions from offering their facilities for training DNB students. While the Indian Medical Council Act only mandates the MCI to prescribe under-graduate courses and degrees, as well as approve the corresponding institutions offering them, it has only advisory and recommendatory powers as regards post-graduate courses and degrees. However, according to the NBE, the MCI had in recent years begun to impose guidelines for post-graduate education as well. These guidelines, as formulated by the PG Committee, rendered a whole cadre of DNB-qualified post-graduate medical students ineligible for teaching posts in medical institutions. This assumed authority, the NBE contended, went beyond the provisions of the Indian Medical Council Act. The requirement of additional experience was reasonable earlier because DNB students did not do any dissertation for their degrees. But now since DNB students also have to do dissertations, there is no rationale any longer for insisting on additional teaching experience. Moreover, all over the world the paradigm of medical education has advanced and today it is integrated with clinical science. In 2003, the MCI enumerated specific reasons why it could not accept the equivalence of DNB degrees with MD/MS and DM/M.Ch degrees. However, both the Government and the NBE find no merit in the MCI’s arguments and have rejected them. In August 2004, and again in September 2005, the MoHFW notified that institutions conducting MCI-approved post-graduate courses were also permitted to run DNB courses. However, in November 2005, the MCI unilaterally instructed all medical institutions to refrain from this practice without seeking the Government’s consent as required. The National Board of Examinations (NBE) was established in 1975 with the aim of elevating standards of post-graduate medical examinations and ensuring uniformity across the country. The NBE became an independent autonomous body under the MoHFW in 1982. The Board has a system of accreditation of hospitals and institutions having adequate trained manpower and infrastructure for training students towards post-graduate and post-doctoral degrees of the Board. Entry to the DNB programme is through a very stringent qualifying Central Entrance Test and an institutional-level speciality-specific aptitude evaluation. Qualifying for the degree is through an extremely rigorous evaluation both in theory and clinical knowledge in which the pass percentage is only about 30-35 per cent. Medical experts say that, by enabling the large number of NBE-qualified post-graduate medical students to enter the country’s mainstream health care system, this move would help offset to a great extent the shortage of teachers in medical institutions that could arise as a result of the envisaged expansion. In fact, this shortage is in some sense artificial because the guidelines of the Medical Council of India (MCI) rendered a whole cadre of qualified doctors ineligible for teaching posts.