The Current State of Medical Education in Chinese Medical Schools

Today's doctor is as much a humanist as a scientist. Medical schools have responded to this change by introducing a variety of courses, most notably those concerning the humanities and ethics. Thus far, no one has examined the extent of use of these subjects in Chinese medical schools. The goal of this study is to determine how many and in what way Chinese medical schools use the humanities and ethics in training future physicians. We surveyed thirty-two Chinese medical schools covering each geographic region of China at the Twelfth Medical Education Conference for China Mainland, Hong Kong, and Taiwan on a variety of topics related to the humanities and ethics. Thirty-one (96.9 percent) Chinese medical schools offer courses in the humanities, and all thirty-two (100.0 percent) Chinese medical schools surveyed offer courses on ethics. Of the thirty-one universities offering humanities courses, twenty-six (83.9 percent) have five or more humanities courses, and of the thirty-two universities offering ethics courses, twenty-six (81.3 percent) have five or more ethics courses. At ten (32.3 percent) universities, all humanities courses are compulsory, at one (3.2 percent) university, all humanities courses are elective, and eighteen (58.1 percent) universities have both compulsory and elective humanities courses. At eighteen (56.3 percent) universities, all medical ethics courses are compulsory, at one (3.1 percent) university all medical ethics courses are elective, and thirteen (40.6 percent) universities have both compulsory and elective medical ethics courses. Educators at Chinese medical schools have embraced the humanities and medical ethics as fundamental components of their curricula as well as for elective study.