Development and some problems in postgraduate psychiatric education and certification system in Korea

This article provided the information concerning the developmental process and the present situation of postgraduate psychiatric education and certification system in Korea, and summarized some of the problems in the system. Korea, first in Asia, by adapting the American psychiatric residency program and their specialty board certification system since 1959, has achieved modern psychiatry faster than any others in Asia. The government proclaimed a law of specialty board certification system and the regulations of the residency training system as well as the curriculum and the supervisory functions in detail. Author presented the curriculum and the regulations step by step. In a brief survey of the 8 training hospitals, majority of the supervising psychiatrists expressed opinions that the present system has many problems to restructure or to reconsider because it is too rigid, too much to teach, old fashioned, neglected Korea's culture specific factors, stereotyped, too many training hospitals, too many residents, and The Korean Neuropsychiatric Association should take over the main role. However it showed that the current situation of the training has very well standardized.