A programme of accelerated medical education in Taiwan

Graduates of the 7-year undergraduate medical curriculum in Taiwan are often deficient in clinical skills.

To implement and assess a programme of accelerated clinical education.

The Department of Primary Care Medicine at the National Taiwan University College of Medicine implemented a programme shortening the undergraduate clinical curriculum from 3 to 2 years and giving students more clinical responsibility. Students were prepared for clinical rotations with a 1-month clinical skills course. Core clinical rotations were redesigned to be more participatory. The programme included 1 year of a postgraduate, rotating residency. Self-selected students with adequate grades, recommendations and performance on an interview participated in the programme. None of them dropped out.

Compared with their traditionally instructed cohorts, graduates of the accelerated programme ( approximately 10% of each class) were more likely to pass national boards (100% versus 80-97%) and were rated as more proficient on 9 of the 10 different clinical performance parameters (p < 0.01 by sign test). Sixty-nine percent reported being satisfied or very satisfied with the programme.

A pilot programme of accelerated medical education at National Taiwan University that included clinical skills instruction, mentor-style classes and active learning techniques resulted in satisfactory outcomes for the students selected for the programme.