Comparison of Students' Characteristics and Perceptions Before and After Introduction Into Graduate Medical School System / 한국의학교육

PURPOSE: This study was performed to compare the characteristics and perceptions of medical school students and professional graduate medical school students. METHODS: Study subjects were 131 medical students from a national university and 113 applicants of a professional graduate medical school. We developed a self-reported questionnaire asking about socio-demographic characteristics; the level of satisfaction of educational environment; perception of missions of medical education and career plan and student activities during school. RESULTS: Students from the professional graduate medical school were significantly different from medical students in socio-demographic characteristics. They also showed higher satisfaction with their education, were more supportive of student union activities and were more anxious about economic and health problems than medical students. However, there was no difference between the two groups regarding perception of missions of medical education and career plan after graduation. CONCLUSION: Based on the above results, it is necessary to consider the characteristics and perceptions of professional graduate medical students when developing educational policies for these older students. The limitation of this study includes a restricted sample, and generalization of results should be done carefully. Thus, more extensive, wide-ranging studies would be useful.

Comparison of the First Year Curricular Achievements between Students of the Medical College and the Professional Graduate Medical School in Chungbuk National University / 한국의학교육

PURPOSE: Chungbuk National University Professional Graduate Medical School(PGMS) was established in 2005. Students in this program have been taught together with the medical college (MC) students under the same curriculum. The first year now being complete, we decided to assess the curricular achievements of the PGMS students. METHODS: We analyzed the academic achievements of the PGMS and the MC students by comparing the test scores of each subject taught during the first year. RESULTS: MC students showed significantly higher achievements in 'Structural basis of the human body' and 'Neuroanatomy', while PGMS students showed significantly better achievements in 'Health and Society I'. In the remaining subjects, the achievements of the PGMS students were comparable to those of the MC students. And there was a difference of variances in 'Microstructure of the human cell and tissue', 'Molecular genetics' and 'Pathology', showing the heterogeneity of the two groups. CONCLUSION: There was no difference in the overall achievement between the PGMS and MC students in the first year of Chungbuk National University Professional Graduate Medical School. However, the different characteristics between the PGMS and MC students suggest some need for curricular differentiation between the two groups.