Attitudes of medical and co-medical students toward congenital anomalies and prenatal diagnosis were investigated. After problem-based learning in medical genetics and embryology, students were shown a short film of a fetus with spina bifida. The students were then asked by questionnaire to answer the following question: “If you were told at 20 weeks' gestation that your fetus had spina bifida, what would you do?” About one third of the female medical students and half of the male students said they would terminate the pregnancy. The students' written comments suggested that female students are more receptive to delivery and to handicapped children. In contrast, male students' attitudes were more passive. Responses of female public health nursing students were similar to those of female medical students, and those of student midwives were much more receptive. These results will provide a basis for education in medical genetics and medical ethics.

1) A person with a medical qualification should be a capable practitioner at the start of their career and capable of adapting to future challenges.
2) Teaching models based on'competence'teach technical accuracy, but do not necessarily prepare students to be capable of making sound clinical judgements or of adapting to new developments.
3) ‘Outcomes’based curricula include technical accuracy and prepare students to make good clinical judgements and to continue to adapt to improve the quality of professional practice and performance.

1) Outcomes have been adopted in preference to competences in medical education because it promotes a higher order of professional capability.
2) New assessment instruments have been introduced to examine a student's capability in both undergraduate and postgraduate phases.
3) The principle of preparing students to be'capable doctors'is international.Leading medical educators around the world are introducing changes to traditional courses to achieve this.

1)In medical education in the United Kingdom, departments of general practice organize the basic training in clinical skills and specialty training in primary care.
2)A clinical clerkship in primary care is a compulsory 5–week subject, as are clerkships in internal medicine, surgery, pediatrics, obstetrics/gynecology, and psychiatry.
3)As a tutorial training system has been established, general practitioners are contributing to medical education as clinical instructors.

1)Leaders of skillslabs at Japanese medical schools are concerned about the future of skillslabs.2)The way skillslabs are presently used in Japan is not in accordance with current evidence on teaching skills.3)We present a stepwise process to bring Japanese skillslabs in line with the standards of 2009.

　This study examined the cases of the difficult encounters with problematic students that academic administrative staffs in the health professions education institutons faces. 185 cases were obtained from the 143 administrative staffs who participated in the training program for academic administrative staffs training from 2013 to 2015. Although there are 136 cases (73.5%) related to the problem students, some cases existed which problems were from the system or faculty members. In order to dealing with difficult encounters appropriately in the health care professional training institutions, the cooperation between teachers and academic administrative staffs is indispensable.

A five-year-old boy with a univentricular heart, inferior vena cava interruption, and azygos connection was admitted to our hospital to undergo a staged Fontan-type procedure. Pectus excavatum had developed after he underwent total cavopulmonary shunt at the age of three years. Computed tomography revealed that the hepatic vein was just behind the recessed sternum. We performed simultaneous Nuss and Fontan-type procedures because we were afraid of the compression of the Fontan pathway from the hepatic vein to the pulmonary artery by the recessed sternum. A cardiopulmonary bypass was established and the hepatic vein and pulmonary artery were bypassed with a 16-mm expanded polytetrafluoroethylene graft. After removing the cardiopulmonary bypass, the Nuss procedure was performed. Although the bilateral thoracic cavities were diffusely and densely adhered, adhesiotomy was safely performed under direct visualization. The postoperative course was uneventful. Postoperative computed tomography showed that the pectus excavatum was well repaired and the Fontan pathway was not compressed by the sternum. Although there are few reports of Fontan-type and Nuss procedures being simultaneously performed, this method is useful for securing the space of the Fontan pathway and for preserving good Fontan circulation in the long term.

1) We visited 5 Scottish universities (the Universities of Aberdeen, St Andrews, Dundee, Glasgow, and Edinburgh) to observe and learn about simulated-patient programs and communication-skills training.
2) Each medical school has developed its own approach for using simulated patients in training and for giving feedback to medical students.
3) In Scotland, where all medical schools adhere to“Tomorrow's Doctors”and“the Scottish Doctor Curriculum Outcomes, ”curriculum styles vary greatly, but the differences are celebrated.The simulated-patient programs are integrated into each program in a way unique to each school.