Medical Professionalism ; Educational environment ; Faculty development
Abstract
For decades medical educators have continually emphasized medical professionalism, which is reflective response
to the challenges of a rapidly changing medical environment. This study aimed to review the experience
of implementing medical professionalism education at Yonsei University College of Medicine (YUCM). YUCM introduced
a new curriculum in 2004 designed by Curriculum Development Project 2004 (CDP2004), a project
that was launched in 2001. CDP2004 reorganized lectures as organ-based integrated lectures, introduced an introductory
course for clinical medicine and medical humanities courses for premedical and medical students.
Problem-based learning (PBL), elective courses, and self-study sessions in the afternoon were implemented in
order to equip students with a self-directed learning attitude as medical professionals. Professors were asked by
the CDP2004 curriculum to spend more time on student education and to adopt new teaching methods. Experiences
of the CDP2004 curriculum reveals 1) difficulty of motivating professors to be PBL tutors 2) students’ dissatisfaction
with the medical humanities course (major critique was that the course was impractical and unrealistic),
and 3) students’ optimistic understanding about their future role as medical professionals in influencing
and helping people in spite of their perception of the general medical environment not as promising. To foster
professionalism, the following are necessary in our experiences: 1) faculty development of medical humanities
and medical professionalism, 2) establishment of an environment throughout the whole institution to support
medical professionalism education and to integrate the concept into praxis, 3) emphasis on the fact that medical
professionalism education is not contradictory to biophysical medical education.