Students undertaking field visits / Research projects / Industry visits/Internships/Community postings at SIMATS
At Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences, we include field work / Industrial visits, Internship and research projects into the curriculum, in order to achieve a holistic training. True to our Mission statement, these internships, outreach programmes widens intellectual horizons, transforms the personality of the student; from a novice to an expert with out of box thinking. At the same time they also develop into an empathetic professional with responsibility towards society. Over 5000 Field visits/ Outreach / Industrial internships / Research projects, which would enrich the curriculum and enhance the learning experience were conducted from the year 2016 till 2021. A compulsory rotatory internship, with 2 months, is completely dedicated to postings in the rural centers, outreach programmes and target population oriented research projects. Students belonging to Medicine, Dentistry, Nursing and other allied health branches utilize these outreach activities to reach the population with high unmet needs and deliver their health care services.
By actively involving in a project pertaining to a target population, students not only understand the magnitude and nature of health problems, but also get trained to plan and conduct health care programs for the community in need.Saveetha Students Community Health Programme is an example of one such, well structured systematic training of students in community health right from the first year onwards till internship. As a part of it, there is a graded interaction of the students with the community through three community health postings.
Every student, be it an undergraduate or post graduate, is encouraged to take up research projects throughout their course of study. The institution encourages them by recognising their work with yearly awards and cash reimbursements. Students of this institution work under collaborative projects, multi centric trials with various universities abroad, renowned research labs and research pioneering in respective fields. This exposure decides their future career in research field.
Field visits not only helped to break the monotony of a classroom, but also, students participating in field visits, utilized the opportunities to build good relationships with industrialists and HR team, thereby increasing their chance for a good placement. Students of Engineering, Management studies and Law get sensitised as to how professionals of different sectors, such as engineers, HR team, and other workers, work in harmony to achieve a common goal and keep the system running smoothly.
The students got sensitized to how a real industry/ hospital or a firm operates and how it delivers its services. By this they could keep up with the latest trends and technologies in their field of expertise. With these field visits and structured internships, the students could actually bridge the gap between applied theoretical concepts and practical knowledge and benefitted from the real time working environment.
On a personal level, field trips helped students to enhance interpersonal, communication skills and teamwork abilities. These visits had time and again proved to be an excellent platform for character building and to improve networking skills ultimately leading to a slow and steady transformation from a student to a professional.