BACKGROUND: Pharmacy curriculum change was made from a 4-year program to a 2+4 year program in year 2009 in Korea. The change has resulted in more educational exposures on patient-centered practice environments for about 1,400 hours in the last year of the professional pharmacy program. When the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) outbreak hit Seoul and suburban areas and propagated to other provinces in Korea, emergency response to avoid student infection in the pharmacy practice sites became an urgent issue. While other health professional programs such as medicine and nursing had activated emergency preparedness manuals, timely and clear guidelines were not disseminated to all pharmacy programs and protective measures largely relied on individual pharmacy program. METHODS: A survey was developed by the Committee on Pharmacy Practice Experience Programs in the Korean College of Clinical Pharmacy to document the status of pharmacy programs during the Korea MERS outbreak in 2015. The 10-question survey was distributed to the pharmacy practice experience coordinators to 34 out of 35 pharmacy schools in Korea by emails. RESULTS: Our findings showed that 82.4% of the program coordinators (28/34) responded to the survey, 96.4% of the programs did not have emergency preparedness manuals, administrative meetings were held in 89.3% of the pharmacy programs, the rotation schedules were modified or withheld in 53.6% of schools, and the changes were mostly observed from the programs classified as MERS outbreak regions. CONCLUSION: Further needs in establishing the emergency preparedness manual should be explored for pharmacy education stakeholders.
Appointments and Schedules ; Civil Defense ; Coronavirus Infections* ; Curriculum ; Education* ; Education, Pharmacy ; Electronic Mail ; Emergencies ; Health Occupations ; Humans ; Korea ; Middle East* ; Nursing ; Pharmacy* ; Schools, Pharmacy ; Seoul

Observation of the current Korean medical education and training system shows that certain negative traits of unchangeable solidification engraft themselves so deeply into the overarching system that they are now hampering the state of the national health welfare. Focusing only on undergraduate medical education, we can point out some glaring side-effects that should be of concern to any stakeholder. For instance, a graduate can legally begin his career as an independent practitioner immediately after passing the licensing exam and return to the old stuck school-year system of 2-year-premedical and 4-year-medical programs where outcome-based and integrated curricula are incomplete and unsatisfactory. In terms of learning opportunities, the balance between patient care and public health, as well as that between in-hospital highly specialized practice and community-based general practice, has worsened. Every stakeholder should be aware of these considerations in order to obtain the insight to forge a new direction. Moreover, our medical schools must prepare our students to take on the global roles of patient care within the Fourth Industrial Revolution, health advocacy for the imminent super-aged society, and education and research in the bio-health industry, by building and applying the concept of academic medicine. We will need to invest more resources, including educational specialists, into the current undergraduate medical education system in order to produce proper outcomes, smart curriculum, innovative methods of teaching and learning, and valid and reliable monitoring and evaluation. The improved quality of undergraduate medical education is the starting point for the success of the national system for public health and medical care as a whole, and therefore its urgency and significance should be emphasized to the public. The medical society should go beyond fixing what is broken and usher in a new era of cooperation and collaboration that invites other health professionals, governmental partners, law-makers, opinion leaders, and the general public in its steps toward the future.
Cooperative Behavior ; Curriculum ; Education ; Education, Medical ; Education, Medical, Undergraduate ; General Practice ; Glare ; Health Occupations ; Humans ; Learning ; Licensure ; Patient Care ; Public Health ; Schools, Medical ; Societies, Medical ; Specialization

The National Teacher Training Center for Health Personnel (NTTC) / Korea, administrated jointly by Seoul National University College of Medicine, is a resource to conduct programs on fundamental and applied problems in Korean medical education, to assist faculty of health professions to gain increased knowledge of the methods of teaching, educational evaluation and curriculum planning. Of varieties of educational services given for health profession faculty since its establishment in 1975, faculty development program has been one of the major activities to provide educational experiences to the faculty members to improve their teaching effectiveness by conducting workshops, seminars and conferences. A total of 30 short-term educational workshop programs, designed for newly appointed medical school faculty members were implemented during a period from 1981 to 1989, and their postworkshop questionnaires were analysed together with summary reports from convertors in view of evaluating immediate effectiveness. The number of participants was 655 from 27 out of 31 medical schools. They attended a 3-day promotional workshop under the same workshop objectives and format with a class size of no more than 30/workshop. The selection procedure was mostly relied on the recommendation through the dean's office. The workshop format was generally well accepted among the participants as a necessary mechanism for reclarification of the faculty roles in teaching-learning process, especially in professional educational programs. Teaching strategies including small group discussions and various group dynamics techniques were the integral parts of the workshop format aiming for the active participation throughout the educational activities in development of lecturing and test-item construction skills. Impeding and enhancing factors identified during the workshop were listed and recommendations to NTTC, medical schools and related organizations were made with regard to further improvement in faculty development programs.
Congresses as Topic ; Curriculum ; Education* ; Education, Medical ; Health Occupations ; Health Personnel ; Humans ; Korea ; Research Report ; Schools, Medical* ; Seoul ; Surveys and Questionnaires

PURPOSE: A knowledge gap exists between general physicians and specialists in diagnosing and managing Alzheimer disease (AD). This gap is concerning due to the estimated rise in prevalence of AD and cost to the health care system. Medical school is a viable avenue to decrease the gap, educating future physicians before they specialize. The purpose of this study was to assess the knowledge level of students in their first and final years of medical school. METHODS: Fourteen participating United States medical schools used e-mail student rosters to distribute an online survey of a quantitative cross-sectional assessment of knowledge about AD; 343 students participated. Knowledge was measured using the 12-item University of Alabama at Birmingham AD Knowledge Test for Health Professionals. General linear models were used to examine the effect of demographic variables and previous experience with AD on knowledge scores. RESULTS: Only 2.5% of first year and 68.0% of final year students correctly scored ten or more items on the knowledge scale. Personal experience with AD predicted higher knowledge scores in final year students (P=0.027). CONCLUSION: Knowledge deficiencies were common in final year medical students. Future studies to identify and evaluate the efficacy of AD education programs in medical schools are warranted. Identifying and disseminating effective programs may help close the knowledge gap.
Alabama ; Alzheimer Disease* ; Delivery of Health Care ; Dementia ; Education ; Education, Medical ; Educational Measurement ; Electronic Mail ; Health Occupations ; Humans ; Linear Models ; Prevalence ; Schools, Medical ; Specialization ; Students, Medical ; United States*

As a criterion of competence, performance-based assessment methods have been used in the health professions for centuries, and dozens of studies of their psychometric characteristics have been reported over the last several decades. Performance-based assessment methods, commonly used in medical education, include written clinical simulations (PMPs), computer-based clinical simulations, role-playing oral examinations, and standardized patient (SP) simulations. The underlying rationale for utilizing performance-based assessments is that they are tools with which one can appropriately evaluate medical students and reinforce what they have learned throughout their undergraduate studies. SPs are being widely used across the curriculum because of their potential advantages: from medical interviewing and physical diagnosis courses to clinical clerkships to residency training. The primary objective for SP encounters is to assist in the formation of fundamental medical interviewing and to improve clinical skills. However, as the program matures, SPs could be used at more advanced levels of medical training and be used to evaluate examinees, as well as obtain feedback on how well the educational program is working, at all levels including residency, continuing medical education for physicians, and even as a way to assess the abilities of foreign medical school graduates. Implementing an SP program will permit Korean medical educators to prospectively identify critical skills for their students to learn and establish explicit performance criteria for clinical competence. This study demonstrates why Korean SP programs should be implemented in the early stages in the medical education program, how to train SPs, and how to apply an SP program in an innovative curriculum, how to study about it, and how to disseminate SP programs throughout the Korean medical educational system.
Checklist ; Clinical Clerkship ; Clinical Competence ; Curriculum ; Diagnosis ; Diagnosis, Oral ; Education, Medical* ; Education, Medical, Continuing ; Health Occupations ; Humans ; Internship and Residency ; Mental Competency ; Prospective Studies ; Psychometrics ; Schools, Medical ; Students, Medical

A national sample survey of medical students about their perception and evaluation on medical study, career plan, and medical care system was conducted in December 1997 through January 1998. About 10% of all the medical students in 32 medical schools that had students from freshman to senior in November 1997 were systematically sampled for a questionnaire survey. Out of 1,386 students, 1,233(89.0%) had responded and 12 of them were excluded from the analysis because of incomplete response. This report is the third part of the study regarding students' view on merits and demerits of being physician, patients and diseases, medical practice, and medical care system. Respondents indicated that the merits of being a physician are humanitarian nature of work(30.0%) and autonomy of work(28.0%) and the demerits are too busy to enjoy peronal life(56.5%) and too much stress from work(41.2%). Social status of physicians was assessed by the students in four dimensions, i.e. social prestige, social influence, power, and income. Students were found to think that the current social status of physicians is lower than it should be ideally in all of four dimensions. Ninety percent of student agreed that physician is a noble occupation that deals with human life but only two-thirds of students agreed that physician is economically secured and socially well recognized occupation. Students regarded the medical insurance system as instigating increase of general hospital and withering of private clinics and hindering medical development by reducing investment capacity. Major problems in medical care system indicated by the students are irrational medical insurance system, concentration of physicians in large cities, and irrational health care delivery system. Medical students regarded the role of nurses as not merely assisting physicians(40.7%) but have to participate more actively in patient care(49.8%). Regarding medical study's effect on views of patients and diseases, 60.4% of them indicated that they became to view patients more as entities of diseases and this was a significant increase from 28.9% in 1983 study. For criteria of death, 73.5% agreed with brain-death. Regarding organ transplantation, 79.2% agreed to encourage it but only 46.9% agreed to encourage artificial fertilization in vitro. In case of accidental death, 73.5% agreed to donate their organs for transplantation. To a statement related with medical malpractice reading "Physicians should be treated generously for their mistakes in medical practice so long as the mistakes are not due to negligence", 71.6% of the students agreed to the statement. To another statement reading "Physicians should be thoroughly investigated and duly penalized for mistakes made by them in their medical practice", only 31.8% agreed to it. These findings suggested that medical students are well aware of the problems in the health care system and social status of physicians. Changes were noticed in the sense of responsibility for medical malpractice and physician's attitude toward patients since 1983 study.
Surveys and Questionnaires ; Delivery of Health Care ; Fertilization in Vitro ; Hospitals, General ; Humans ; Insurance ; Investments ; Malpractice ; Occupations ; Organ Transplantation ; Schools, Medical ; Students, Medical* ; Transplants

A national sample survey of medical students about their perception and evaluation on medical study, career plan, and medical care system was conducted in December 1997 through January 1998. About 10% of all the medical students in 32 medical schools that had students from freshman to senior in November 1997 were systematically sampled for a questionnaire survey. Out of 1,386 students, 1,233(89.0%) had responded and 12 of them were excluded from the analysis because of incomplete response. This report is the third part of the study regarding students' view on merits and demerits of being physician, patients and diseases, medical practice, and medical care system. Respondents indicated that the merits of being a physician are humanitarian nature of work(30.0%) and autonomy of work(28.0%) and the demerits are too busy to enjoy peronal life(56.5%) and too much stress from work(41.2%). Social status of physicians was assessed by the students in four dimensions, i.e. social prestige, social influence, power, and income. Students were found to think that the current social status of physicians is lower than it should be ideally in all of four dimensions. Ninety percent of student agreed that physician is a noble occupation that deals with human life but only two-thirds of students agreed that physician is economically secured and socially well recognized occupation. Students regarded the medical insurance system as instigating increase of general hospital and withering of private clinics and hindering medical development by reducing investment capacity. Major problems in medical care system indicated by the students are irrational medical insurance system, concentration of physicians in large cities, and irrational health care delivery system. Medical students regarded the role of nurses as not merely assisting physicians(40.7%) but have to participate more actively in patient care(49.8%). Regarding medical study's effect on views of patients and diseases, 60.4% of them indicated that they became to view patients more as entities of diseases and this was a significant increase from 28.9% in 1983 study. For criteria of death, 73.5% agreed with brain-death. Regarding organ transplantation, 79.2% agreed to encourage it but only 46.9% agreed to encourage artificial fertilization in vitro. In case of accidental death, 73.5% agreed to donate their organs for transplantation. To a statement related with medical malpractice reading "Physicians should be treated generously for their mistakes in medical practice so long as the mistakes are not due to negligence", 71.6% of the students agreed to the statement. To another statement reading "Physicians should be thoroughly investigated and duly penalized for mistakes made by them in their medical practice", only 31.8% agreed to it. These findings suggested that medical students are well aware of the problems in the health care system and social status of physicians. Changes were noticed in the sense of responsibility for medical malpractice and physician's attitude toward patients since 1983 study.
Surveys and Questionnaires ; Delivery of Health Care ; Fertilization in Vitro ; Hospitals, General ; Humans ; Insurance ; Investments ; Malpractice ; Occupations ; Organ Transplantation ; Schools, Medical ; Students, Medical* ; Transplants

Since the World Health Organization identified interprofessional education (IPE) as an important component in primary health care in the 1980s, medical and health sciences educators have continued to debate factors for implementing effective IPE in the classroom. Although IPE research is widespread internationally, few studies have been done in South Korea. This study explored the current status of IPE and examined factors that influence IPE in South Korea. A total of 30 (70%) out of 41 medical education experts in medical schools participated. Forty-seven percent of the participants reported that they allocated less than 5% of their time implementing IPE in the curriculum of their schools throughout the 4 years of medical school. Although all experts (100%) agreed that IPE is essential for medical students, they expressed practical difficulties in implementing IPE in the current education system. Factors that influence IPE are scheduling and curriculum (e.g., rigid curriculum vs. providing learning environment) and attitudes (e.g., lack of reciprocal respect vs. willingness to change). In addition, participants reported that communication skills and collaborative practice employing clinical practice or role-playing would be appropriate education methods and content for IPE in the future. The findings of this study provide a foundation for the implementation of IPE in South Korea. Future research directions for IPE in medical, nursing, and pharmacy schools are discussed.
Cooperative Behavior ; Curriculum ; Education ; Education, Medical ; Humans ; Interprofessional Relations ; Korea ; Learning ; Nursing ; Primary Health Care ; Professionalism ; Schools, Medical ; Schools, Pharmacy ; Students, Medical ; World Health Organization

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate patient safety teaching competency of nursing faculty and the extent of teaching patient safety topics in the nursing curriculum. METHODS: A national survey was conducted with full-time nursing faculty in 4-year nursing schools. Regional quota sampling method was used. An online survey was sent to 1,028 nursing faculty and 207 of them were completed. Among the 207, we analyzed data from 184 participants. The revised Health Professional Education in Patient Safety Survey was used. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, independent t-test, one-way ANOVA, Pearson's correlation analysis, and multiple linear regression analyses. RESULTS: The faculty's self-confidence was lower than their perceived importance of patient safety education. The mean score of teaching patient safety was 3.52±0.67 out of 5, and the contents were mostly delivered through lectures. The extent of faculty's teaching varied depending on faculty's clinical career, teaching subjects, participation in practicum courses, and previous experience of patient safety education. The significant predictors of the extent of teaching patient safety were the faculty's self-confidence in teaching patient safety (β=.39) during clinical practicum, their perceived importance of patient safety education during lectures (β=.23), and the teaching subject (β=.15). CONCLUSION: To enhance the competency of nursing faculty for effective patient safety education, a patient safety education program tailored to faculty characteristics should be developed and continuously provided for faculty. In addition, it is necessary to improve patient safety curriculum, strengthen clinical and school linkages, and utilize various education methods in patient safety education.
Curriculum ; Education ; Education, Nursing ; Faculty, Nursing* ; Health Occupations ; Humans ; Lectures ; Linear Models ; Methods ; Nursing* ; Patient Safety* ; Preceptorship ; Professional Competence ; Schools, Nursing

OBJECTIVES: Bioterrorism (BT) preparedness and response plans are particularly important among healthcare workers who will be among the first involved in the outbreak situations. This study was conducted to evaluate the current status of education for BT preparedness and response in healthcare-related colleges/junior colleges and to develop learning objectives for use in their regular curricula. METHODS: We surveyed all medical colleges/schools, colleges/junior colleges that train nurses, emergency medical technicians or clinical pathologists, and 10% (randomly selected) of them that train general hygienists in Korea. The survey was conducted via mail from March to July of 2007. We surveyed 35 experts to determine if there was a consensus of learning objectives among healthcare workers. RESULTS: Only 31.3% of medical colleges/schools and 13.3% of nursing colleges/junior colleges had education programs that included BT preparedness and responses in their curricula. The most common reason given for the lack of BT educational programs was 'There is not much need for education regarding BT preparedness and response in Korea'. None of the colleges/junior colleges that train clinical pathologists, or general hygienists had an education program for BT response. After evaluating the expert opinions, we developed individual learning objectives designed specifically for educational institutions. CONCLUSIONS: There were only a few colleges/junior colleges that enforce the requirement to provide education for BT preparedness and response in curricula. It is necessary to raise the perception of BT preparedness and response to induce the schools to provide such programs.
*Bioterrorism ; Curriculum ; Disaster Planning/*organization & administration ; Humans ; Korea ; Schools, Health Occupations/*organization & administration