Purpose This study aimed to implement and evaluate the outcomes, perceptions, and satisfaction of the Capstone Program developed at the Catholic University of Korea, which integrates career exploration and medical humanities.
Methods This study was conducted with fourth-year medical students from 2017 to 2019. First, the study analyzed the trends in the results of Capstone Projects conducted by students as part of their career exploration, where they independently explored areas of interest and selected topics. Second, it qualitatively analyzed the content of individual reports in which students reflected on their experiences from a “medical humanities perspective” through the Capstone Program. Third, it examined students’ perceptions and satisfaction with the Capstone Program.
Results The analysis revealed that students chose research topics from a wide range of fields, including basic medicine, clinical medicine, global healthcare, and integrated healthcare systems and innovation. The students reported positive perceptions of their career exploration and research experiences through the Capstone Program, particularly valuing sessions like “Meetings with Seniors” within the conference framework. Students indicated that the Capstone Program enhanced their ability to think introspectively from a humanities perspective, deepening their understanding of their roles and responsibilities as medical professionals.
Conclusion The Capstone Program provides a significant opportunity for medical students to explore their career paths and engage in introspective reflection from the viewpoint of medical humanities and social sciences. Thus, the integration of programs like capstone into the broader medical curriculum, focusing on career guidance and the reinforcement of medical humanities education, is imperative.
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There has been growing interest regarding the 'medical humanities' in most medical schools in Korea. Medical humanities is an interdisciplinary field of humanities, social science, and the arts that aims to have a critical or supplementary role in medical education and practice. Thus, diverse educational methods should be applied to achieve the goals of medical humanities. The illness narrative is one of the most powerful tools in this context. An illness narrative is a patient's story about his illness, including the meaning of the illness in his life. The illness narrative is widely accepted as an effective educational tool in medical humanities. But, in Korea, there has been concern about the nature, theoretical background, and usefulness of the illness narrative. Medical students and doctors can obtain empathy and clinical wisdom through telling, hearing, reading, and writing illness narratives.
In this article, I will examine the nature and meaning of illness narratives in teaching medical humanities and discuss several examples of narrative training programs.
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PURPOSE This study aims to analyze the characteristics of discussion materials that promote student participation in discussions, satisfaction with student instruction, and tutor intervention in the medical humanities.
METHODS We surveyed 117 premedical students and 7 tutors who attended 4-week group discussions in the medical humanities in 2010. We described the discussion materials using the following 4 characteristics as independent variables: material type, level of understanding, interest, and quantity. Dependent variables were: student participation in the discussion, student instruction satisfaction, and tutor intervention. Correlation analysis, multiple regression analysis, and crosstab were performed using SPSS 15.0.
RESULTS The correlation between the characteristics of the discussion materials differed by grade. When the books were chosen as the discussion material in the instruction of first-year premedical students, the correlation between level of understanding, interest, and quantity was negative.
Higher levels of understanding of the material and interest in the material led to an increase in discussion participation among both first- and second-year premedical students. Higher levels of understanding and interest of the discussion material also increased student satisfaction with the instruction, regardless of grade. Finally, levels of understanding of the material affected the degree of tutor intervention. Tutors intervened more often in discussions with first-year premedical students than with second-year premedical students.
CONCLUSION Differences in grades and the understanding of the discussion material should be considered when choosing discussion materials. Further study is required to continue the development of the discussion model and improve methods of facilitate discussion among students in the medical humanities.
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PURPOSE We did this study to find out the current teaching status of the medical humanities and social sciences curriculum in Korean medical schools. Further, we discuss the tasks at hand to improve the curriculum in medical education. METHODS: The curricula of 41 medical schools and the syllabi of 10 schools were examined. We analyzed the tables of course organization and contents of integrated medical humanities. After analysis of the contents, they were grouped into 6 categories of medical humanities and social sciences domain. RESULTS: Our results are as follow: 1) there are 3 types of medical humanities and social sciences subject forms: inter-disciplinary (integrated, for example, PDS), multi-disciplinary (separated subject form), and mixed (integrated+separated); 2) most schools offer medical humanities and social sciences in a required class; 3) medical humanities and social sciences are taught through all school years and all 8 graduate medical schools offer a medical humanities and social sciences course from year 1; and 4) the average academic credits for medical humanities are 10 or 11. With respect to the curriculum content, there is some commonality in 10 schools: disease prevention, health improvement, medical ethics, medical regulation, professionalism, and community medicine. Differences were seen in content selection and organization. CONCLUSION: After brief reviews of the medical humanities and social science curriculums, we discovered that all Korean medical schools meet the need of medical humanities and social sciences education. However, curriculum implementation differed in various ways. We suggest the following tasks: 1) clarification of educational goals in order to develop a core curriculum of medical humanities and social sciences in Korea; 2) sharing experiences of developing a well-designed curriculum with other medical schools for effective teaching of this subject area.
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Scientific and humanistic aspects are integral to medicine and they must be bounded and integrated, not to suggest that one is more important than the other, or that they operate separately.In fact, the symbol of the physician, 'Caduceus' properly represents the bonding and intertwining between two forces of knowledge and wisdom or science and humanities, and as seen in the Hippocratic Oath, the humanities and the humanistic aspect of medical profession were important parts of practice thousands of years before medicine learned to use science as a new approach to acquire knowledge.
However, the advances in science and technology in the early twenty century have fostered an emphasis on knowledge and technical skills in medical education with a neglect of the traditional humane and interpersonal aspects of the practice of medicine.
Due to these concerns, for the last some 30years, there have been many attempts to improve general professional education and promote humanities curricula in medical education such as atruistic attitudes and professional behaviors that those pursuing careers in medicine should possess.
This paper briefly reviews current status of teaching medical humanities and social sciences in Korean medical schools, and discusses tasks to be coped with to further improve the medical humanities curriculum in Korea including development of effective teaching and evaluation methods.
This paper also emphasizes the importance of the role of the medical education systems such as National Licensing Medical Examination and the Medical School Accreditation System in improving the teaching of medical humanities and social sciences in Korean medical schools.
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