An Investigation of the Effectiveness of the Family Adoption Program Among Undergraduate Medical Students

Background The National Medical Commission introduced the Family Adoption Program (FAP) under Competency-Based Medical Education to promote holistic learning across cognitive, psychomotor, and affective domains. Rooted in the Sewagram model, FAP emphasizes experiential, community-based learning to improve medical students' communication skills, clinical competence, and understanding of rural health. This initiative aims to bridge the urban-rural healthcare gap while nurturing empathetic and socially accountable healthcare professionals. In this study, we aimed to assess the effectiveness of FAP in enhancing cognitive, psychomotor, and affective domains among medical students. Methodology A prospective, longitudinal study was conducted among 150 MBBS students over 14 months. Students' performance in the three domains was evaluated before and after participation using a validated semi-structured questionnaire. Paired t-tests were used to analyze cognitive and psychomotor scores, while affective responses were summarized descriptively. Results A significant improvement was observed in both knowledge and psychomotor skills after FAP participation. Mean cognitive scores increased from 22.5 ± 6.5 to 31.6 ± 5.6, and psychomotor scores increased from 16.6 ± 7.2 to 29.0 ± 6.3 (p < 0.001). Post-test results indicated better understanding and practical abilities. In the affective domain, all students found FAP useful, and 90.7% reported enhanced community knowledge. Most students highlighted the importance of ethical values, teamwork, and accountability, recognizing FAP as a meaningful experiential learning initiative. Conclusions FAP significantly enhanced cognitive and psychomotor skills, while the affective domain revealed improved rapport with families, greater community insight, and strengthened values of ethics, teamwork, and social responsibility.