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Sunday 22 January 2012

An Insight into a Different World


    As the world becomes complex & competitive to live in, it becomes very important to make right decisions at right time. The time would certainly knock the door after completing graduation in dentistry, and the young graduates would be in immense pressure thinking as to how to shape up their career. It becomes important not only to succeed in life but to satisfy the needs of the society, being its respectable health servants.

     Some doctors might opt for private dental practise to start serving people immediately whereas some plan to continue their education, as to enhance their skills in a specific department. For those who want to continue their education further after graduation, you have options in the form of post-graduation courses in dentistry which can be categorized as diploma courses and master’s courses (MDS). This is a general perception, many dentists have and it is a known fact that very few people think beyond that. The time has certainly come to analyse and evaluate the different options that as a normal graduate you can pursue for the betterment of the field you have studied for past few years. Some of these courses include post-graduation in management (MBA), civil services and few other public sector courses. As a graduate from a respectable profession, you can also think of doing masters of public health in different branches and diploma courses in medical fields related to dentistry.

    As a postgraduate in management, from a prestigious brand of B-school in India, I am keener to share some of the management options available for you. There is a saying that every sector or every profession require managers to effectively make use of available resources and make some profits. Being a dentist, earning money look very easy, but when it comes to increasing the profits after tallying the balance sheet, people find it difficult. I have seen many doctors starting multiple dental clinics after some initial successes, but when it comes to managing, they tend to give up and keep their clinics up for sale. It’s just that doing an MBA enable, you to understand the business problems at the highest level. Besides, with the current opportunities in healthcare management in our country, an MBA seems to be the way forward.

    For a dental graduate, the options in management studies include Hospital Administration, Health Administration, Pharmaceutical Management and plane MBA specializing in general fields like Marketing, Finance, Human Resources, Operations or Systems. It can be pursued as a full time course or part time course and the duration of course depends on institute you are choosing for. There are some institutes which complete the course in 9 months and there are some which take around 5 years. But the most common duration which many institutes across India offer is 2 years. Some institutes offer part time courses conducting lectures in the weekends solely targeting the working professionals.

    As the name suggests MBA in hospital management teaches the hospital administration to the peak as it includes the subjects related to different departments of a hospital, whereas MBA in health management enables you to understand the grass root level of healthcare system in India, most part of which include health insurance and healthcare consultancy courses. There are some colleges in India which provide both this courses in a single diploma as MBA in health and hospital management. Moreover, as you may be aware of, healthcare sector in India is in a high growth state and one of the reasons is increasing opportunities in pharma sector which is attracting many foreign players to India to  merge with or acquire Indian pharma companies. So MBA in pharmaceutical management would give you a stand to succeed in this largely profitable sector.

    Besides all this specialized courses, one more option which you may consider is general or plane MBA, which will help you understanding basic business models from a general point of view and open up the options for you to join any sector you are interested in depending on your will to leave dentistry or healthcare to be specific. However, when it comes to studying MBA, you may find it difficult to cope up with some of the subjects which may sound new and complex to you. But certainly nothing is said to be impossible and am saying this as we, dental graduates, can handle this things on a relatively easier note. Besides I am into my third trimester (out of six) in my institute doing plane MBA and I can safely say that it’s not that hard.

    The word success is always an individual dependent. For someone, the magnitude of success may be small and he/she may call that they succeeded in life. MBA is just a mode that one can pick up in your life as a career option; but that do not assure you the success. It is always your skills that come up first and the way you implement them, matters the most. In short success is not doing an MBA but MBA can be considered as one of the success mode in life. Rely on yourself than relying on any degree.

  
Disclaimer: This is a personal weblog. The opinions expressed here represent my own, based on research in real life and online portals.

Dr. Kishor Chindam
BDS, MGM Dental College, Navi Mumbai
PGDM, Indian Institute of Management Tiruchirappalli (IIM Trichy)

13 comments:

  1. wow!!! this is just awesome...feels like you stole words out of my mind!!! good job Kishor.. It would be of great help to the confused minds out there!!

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  2. Thank you so much Farah... It would be of great help to the fellow aspirants if you also contribute in some or other way..
    you can write a blog about everything related Hospital administration since you are attached to that...

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  3. great work....you are doing a great job by guiding the fellow aspirants!!

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  4. sir m realy confusd as i join a institute for m preprn for m mds.... but i lik to do mba nw... sir can u guide me wht to study for dis entrnc examination.. its similar to cat pattern or its realted to our studies?? as aims also condcutng xams regadng hospital mangmnt.. they r gng 2 follow cat patter?..

    plzz help me out

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  5. @deepisca - Thank you for your complements. As a person who have gone through all these hurdles I understand the definitive need for this kind of initiative..

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  6. @jayshree - Entrance exam for AIIMS Hospital administration course would test you mostly on your verbal ability and reading comprehension. Besides it could include logical questions and very less and easy quantitative questions. I am nt sure about General Awareness questions but it may include some questions to test your knowledge on hospital and healthcare system in general and with Indian perspective. If you are interested in any particular institute or exam, you can anytime contact the admission officials of that institute and ask them about the pattern of the exam. Every MBA entrance would test your logical skills (which requires mathematical knowledge) as well as verbal ability . keep this in mind and prepare accordingly.. Good Luck

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  7. Thank for your blog information.... This blog information is really useful for me......





    Health Care Management Services

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  8. sir one qustn is alwaz asked in PI. why mba after bds? can u throw some light on that..

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  9. Ur article was really helpful although I have one Q...how much is the importance of experience (clinical or other) in securing job after mba??

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  10. sir i am a bds graduate who just finished my internship and i have little interest in the course.hence i was looking at plain mba as an option..do u think plain mba or healthcare management is better in terms of prospects

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  11. Hi, Kishore, great to know a dentist in IIM, I finished BDS in 2003, worked in that field for 2 yrs,then did pg diploma in hospital and healthcare in symbiosis, didnt find a very promising job so still practicing dentistry along with managing a small nursing home, now I really want to crack CAT and start afresh, is it a good idea? or doing PGPEX is better? or any other suggestion. Thanks

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  12. Hi sir !! im a dentist ...im planning to pursue mba in human resources in newzealand ...i have a doubt !! z it advisible to tk up mba hr ??? im moving to newzealand ...for now i cant gv my exams there to gt license for practise. i gt time to do mba..none of the universities in newzealand offer mba hospital management / health care management ..im dam confused...cn u suggest me reagarding this ????

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  13. Hello, could you throw some light on the nature of the job profile and financial stability in the hospital administration sector?

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