“Booster Shots” of Humanism at Bedside Teaching

• Main Author: Chi-Wan Lai
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: National University of Singapore 2020-05-01
• Series: The Asia Pacific Scholar
• Subjects: booster shots; humanism; bedside teaching
• Online Access: http://theasiapacificscholar.org/booster-shots-of-humanism-at-bedside-teaching/

I. INTRODUCTION Most medical education programmes in Taiwan accept students upon high school graduation. Medical education used to consist of seven years with the last year being an internship. Since 2013, medical students have graduated at the end of six years, and the internship has been moved to a postgraduate year. In both formats, students have been offered medical humanities courses in the “pre-med” phase, i.e. the first two years of medical school. From the third year onward, however, students rarely have exposure to subjects related to humanism, other than courses on medical ethics and some problem-based learning case discussions. Moreover, medical students have had very little exposure to humanities in high school. Such limited exposure to humanities during medical school can have detrimental effects on cultivating humanistic physicians in Taiwan.