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

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

The written examination that is being used as the only tool to assess the learning ability of the students in Korea tests the degree to which each student has mastered the learning objectives. Idealy, the examination should test the students' in three major categories of objectives ; cognitive, motor-skills and affective area, and include various types of question items. In reality, however, the tests are very much simplified both in objective categories and types of question items simply because of the carelessness and conveniences of teachers. This study analyzes the pattern of objective categories, types of question items, and the number of question items of a mid-term examination of one medical school in Seoul. Fifty junior faculties from 50 departments and teaching units were asked to assess the question items of their own departmental examination after a guideline had been given by the authors. Major findings as obtained from the study are as follows ; 1. More than half (56.4%) of the test items were related to the cognitive area and only 10.8% of all the test items were related to motor-skills. Test items of pre-med courses were much more ideal than those of other medical and nursing courses in distribution of objective categories. Only 4.7% of the items of clinical medical courses were for evaluation of motor-skills. 2. In types of question items, 57.1% were essay type and the rest 43.9% were selection type. Test items of clinical medical courses were adopting the most ideal pattern in types of test items by having more than 4 different types of question items. 3. Average number of question items per teaching subject was 27.3 (range : 6-71). Some departments and teaching units were giving students too many test items in a given time period (50 minutes). In conclusion, written examination in a medical college varies in testing students' learning objectives, and types and number of test items by departments and teaching units. It is supported that before making test items, consideration on learning objective categories, types of question items and the number of question items in very much needed.
Humans ; Korea ; Learning* ; Nursing ; Schools, Medical ; Seoul*

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Schools, Medical*

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Schools, Medical*

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Schools, Medical*

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Schools, Medical*

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Schools, Medical*

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Schools, Medical*