Identification and evaluation of the core elements of character education for medical students in Korea

Divergence and Convergence of the Public Health Leadership Competency Framework Against Others in Undergraduate Medical Education: A Scoping Review

Objective: The following scoping review is aimed at identifying leadership competency frameworks in Undergraduate Medical Education (UME) by analyzing the thematic scopes, target audiences, and methods involved. A further objective is to compare the frameworks against a standard framework. Methods: The authors extracted the thematic scope and methods of each framework based on the original author's formulations in each selected paper. The target audience was divided into three sections: UME, medical education, and beyond medical education. The frameworks were converged and diverged against the public health leadership competency framework. Results: Thirty-three frameworks covering thematic scopes such as refugees and migrants were identified. The most common methods to develop leadership frameworks were reviews and interviews. The courses targeted multiple disciplines including medicine and nurses. The identified competency frameworks have not converged among important domains of leadership such as systems thinking, political leadership, leading change, and emotional intelligence. Conclusion: There is a variety of frameworks that support leadership in UME. Nevertheless, they are not consistent in vital domains to face worldwide health challenges. Interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary leadership competency frameworks which address health challenges should be used in UME.

Medical students' self-evaluation of character, and method of character education

BACKGROUND

As medical doctors must have a strong sense of ethics, character education is particularly important for them compared with other professions. This follow-up study aimed to establish the foundation for developing a character education program in medical schools by (1) conducting a survey among medical students on the self-assessment of one's character based on eight qualities (service and sacrifice, empathy and communication, care and respect, honesty and humility, responsibility and calling, collaboration and magnanimity, creativity and positivity, patience and leadership), the perceived importance of character, and satisfaction with character education at medical school, and (2) analyzing the usefulness of learning methods for acquiring character elements. It also aimed at verifying the (3) gender differences in self-evaluation of character elements, and (4) academic-year differences in the survey items.

METHODS

Medical students' perceptions were identified through a questionnaire survey among 856 medical students from five South Korean medical schools. The questionnaire comprised items on the achievement level of the character element, importance of character in the medical curriculum, satisfaction with character education in medical schools, and the learning method's degree of helpfulness. Descriptive statistics, t-test, and one-way ANOVA were used to compare responses.

RESULTS

The importance of eight-character qualities had high average scores, whereas the average scores for satisfaction with character education and achievement level were comparatively low. For the question on each learning method's helpfulness in gaining the eight-character qualities, the score of team-based learning activities was the highest, followed by club activities, relationships with peers, role modeling of professors, and course study. Regarding satisfaction with character education, male students gave higher scores than female students, manifesting a statistically significant difference. Regarding the importance of the character element in medical education, statistically significant differences existed based on academic year.

CONCLUSION

Medical students' perceptions of character education varied according to gender and academic year. They regarded character education highly but were unsatisfied with the current character education at medical schools. Thus, diverse character education curricula must be developed and implemented along with extra-curricular character programs. An effective approach to implementing character education can be discovered by verifying the differences in students' perceptions based on the character education courses in medical schools.

Definition of character for medical education based on expert opinions in Korea

PURPOSE

This follow-up study focused on 3 overarching questions: what keywords can be extracted from experts’ definitions of character?; what is the operational definition of character for medical students?; and what possible solutions can be suggested to address the issues of character education that were identified in the previous study?

METHODS

Sixty-three medical education experts recruited through expert sampling and 19 non-medical education experts recruited through snowball sampling answered a questionnaire that addressed the 3 major questions of the study. The responses were analyzed for descriptive statistics with supplementary keyword extraction tools, including the Cortical and Monkey keyword extractors.

RESULTS

A total of 93 definitional statements were counted, and 138 keyword terms were extracted. The top 5 keyword terms mentioned by the medical education experts were “patient”, “empathy”, “qualities”, “attitude”, and “ability”. These keyword terms were quite different from those mentioned by the non-medical education experts. Based on the extracted keywords, an operational definition of character education by the medical education expert group was presented as follows: the basic qualities and ability to empathize with patients affected by illness based on respect for patients and others. Various methods were proposed to solve the issue of character education, and many of them pointed to curriculum development, such as improvements in teaching and learning methods and evaluation methods, including role modeling.

CONCLUSION

A clear statement of the concept of character education is the start to resolve issues of character education. Character education improvements will be possible at the institutional level according to the above results.

Core elements of character education essential for doctors suggested by medical students in Korea: a preliminary study

This preliminary study aimed to determine how medical students perceive character education in Korea. A structured survey questionnaire was distributed to 10 medical students between September and December 2018, of whom 6 students replied. Students’ responses were classified into elements, which were also categorized. Twenty-nine core elements of characters in 8 categories were verified as essential for doctors and as needs for character education. The most frequently suggested categories were “care and respect,” “empathy and communication,” and “responsibility and calling.” Participants also stated that various forms of character education are necessary and that they were not satisfied with the teaching methods of the character education that they had received. These results verified the most essential character traits for doctors and identified problems related to current character education. The results of this study will be helpful for preparing the character education curriculum in medical schools.