UNAIR NEWS – The Department of Psychiatry is one of the departments with a long history at the Faculty of Medicine (FK) Universitas Airlangga (UNAIR). Since separated from neuro-psychiatric education in 1972, the Department of Psychiatry has made various improvements and developments.
Head of Department of Psychiatry dr. Azimatul Karimah Sp.KJ(K) said that this department has good cooperation with the medical fields. Even in 2019, the Department of Psychiatry managed to sign an international collaboration in education and research with National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan.
“Not all hospitals want to involve Psychiatry in their team. Meanwhile, we work not only with hospitals but also with other institutions that need psychiatric services. Such as Medaeng correctional facility; Bhayangkara Hospital to study forensics; Menur Mental Hospital; and Panti Wreda,” said Azima, known better as dr. Uci.
The Department of Psychiatry itself has two programs accredited A, Specialist Program in Psychiatry and Sub-specialist Program in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
Although the Department of Psychiatry is relatively small, a myriad of goals are pursued by Dr. Uci during her tenure. In the fields of research, she targeted Sinta-accredited scientific magazines. “Hopefully, we can get Sinta 5 or 4 at first. If it is achieved, we will pursue international ones like Scopus,” she said.
She is also going to increase the number of professors. In addition, Azima also wants to make a textbook for undergraduate students.
On the other hand, the Covid-19 pandemic presents its own challenges. Dr. Uci revealed, the decline in the number of patients during the pandemic greatly affected the clinical skills of specialists (PPDS).
“If the number of patients decreases, the ratio between patients and PPDS is not as good as it used to be. In the past, one PPDS might be able to handle 50 patients. Now they have only 20 patients. Finally, we work around this to increase network cooperation,” she said.
Several national and international achievements from the academic community continue to flow both from lecturers and students. Many alumni have become leaders in several hospitals.
In 2017, the Department of Psychiatry was also involved in the Community Mental Health Program at the provincial level with the area under the guidance of the Bangkalan Health Service, Madura. Her party was to form mental health teams in districts and sub-districts.
“Last time, we made innovative lecture videos for the neuropsychological rehabilitation module, and it has been uploaded to e-AULA. Sixteen videos can be accessed starting February 2021. Psychiatry cannot be learned only from PPT,” she said.
To realize those goals, said Azima, the department needs new Human Resources (HR). Currently, out of 16 active staff, only four are from FK UNAIR.
“I started recruiting hardworking people to manage our department because I am building an image of reliability for this department. It’s small, but we can be relied on in all areas of the higher education Tri Dharma. Even without the leadership’s spotlight, we have already worked on it,” she said. (*)
Author: Erika Eight Novanty
Editor: Khefti Al Mawalia
