Study on the Medical Humanities and Social Sciences Curriculum in Korean Medical School: Current Teaching Status and Learning Subjects

Ewha Womans University, Seoul, Korea Purpose: We did this study to find out the current teaching status of th e 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 scho ols were examined. We analyzed the tables of course organization and contents of inte grated medical humanities. After analysis of the contents, they were grouped into 6 categories o f 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 s ocial sciences course from year 1; and 4) the average academic credits for medical humanities are 10 o r 11. With respect to the curriculum content, there is some commonality in 10 schools: disease preve ntion, health improvement, medical ethics, medical regulation, professionalism, and community medi cine. Differences were seen in content selection and organization. Conclusion: After brief reviews of the medical humanities and social scien ce curriculums, we discovered that all Korean medical schools meet the need of med ical humanities and social sciences education. However, curriculum implementation differed in vario us ways. We suggest the following tasks: 1) clarification of educational goals in order to develo p a core curriculum of medical humanities and social sciences in Korea; 2) sharing experiences of develop ing a well-designed curriculum with other medical schools for effective teaching of this subject ar ea.?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????Key Words: Medical humanities, Professional behavior, Multi-disciplinary curriculum, Inter-discipli-nary curriculum, Curriculum change, Curriculum development