Curriculum Arrangment Of Undergraduate In Clinical Medicine

The attainment of the highest possible level of health depends, to a substantialdegree, on the availability of sufficient appropriately prepared and distributed healthpersonnel, capable of providing quality cost-effective health services. According tothe corresponding statistics, during the period of "the tenth five-year plan", bothquality and quantity of healthcare providers in Guangdong province have slightlyimproved, however, due to average low quality of health care workforce as well asuneven distribution, there still are a lot to be desired to better meet the needs ofrestyling the community of Guangdong and of building up a harmonious society.Currently, it is generally accepted that human resources development is one ofthe primary sources of profits and is regarded as an effective measure for sustainablesocio-economic development. Adult education, an important component of humanresources development, has become increasingly significant in personal growth andself-improvement among health care professionals.Undergradute, which bridges the gap between associate and junior collegeeducation, is very popular among the associates in medicine as one of primary waysof upgrading the degree. In order to provide students with quality education, medicaleducators in our university thought highly of developing the curricula for the programand were actively involved in performing academic research as well as in puttingoutcomes into practice. Currently, how to design curricula for medical undergradute has become one of important research area in medical education.Lifelong education, an internationally adopted educational core concept andfuture trend of education, had a profound impact on education in China, especially onreform and development of adult education in facilitating transition of educationnotion from adult education to lifelong education.Lifelong education advocators thoroughly changed the traditional notion andidea of education by throwing a completely new insight into education. They arguedthat education is a continuum through the life. Therefore, adult education, as anindispensable part of continuum, is dedicated not only to teach fundamental science,basic knowledge and primary skills, but also to help students establish the concept oflifelong learning, which would help students develop the ability of lifelong learningand promote an comprehensive growth in the area of knowledge, competences,critical thinking and so on.Four principles that should follow developing curricula for undergradute ofclinical medicine were proposed by the author through flexibly applying theory ofbusiness process reengineering (BPR) to practice of adult education on the basis ofcomprehensive reviewing relevant curricula in both domestic and overseas medicalinstitutions, namely: integration of completeness with practicality; integration ofnon-certification and certification; utilization of our existing strength and highlight ofour features; integration of formal didactic lecture and hidden curriculum withappropriate mixture.The curricula for undergradute was comprised of three modules: undergraduatetraining, postgraduate updating, and job training. After reviewing other similarcurricula implemented by other medical unversity in China, we adjusted our curriculafor medical undergradute through implementing a new credit system with respect toidea of lifelong education and requirements of medical licensure examination issued by the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health, to better meet the needs ofstudents, which need to continually "learn, compete and change" to be better able toreact in an agile manner to a rapidly changing climate in the future.As international competition is becoming increasingly harsh, competitionbetween nations depends mainly on overall strength of a nation, ultimately ontechnology and quantity and quality of human resources. Curricula, the core of allteaching activities in principle, plays a vital role in interacting with principles and inguiding direction of education and would determine quality of education.As society has progressed, patients' expectations toward health care and diseasespectrum will change correspondingly. What is more, there still is a gap betweensupply and demand in health care service. All these elements pose great challenges onhealth care. Medical university should adjust their curricula with respect to thesechanges to improve the quality of teaching, to further enhance the overallcompetencies of health care providers, ultimately, to better serve society.