Purpose: Medicine requires uniquely high levels of motivation, ethics, and altruistic values and behavior. This study was conducted to redefine character education in medical education and to identify and evaluate the core elements of physicians’ character.Methods: A 3-round Delphi survey was conducted among professors of medical education, physicians, experts from nursing schools, and a head nurse in Korea. A consultant group (CG) was formed to prepare the Delphi survey, discuss the research results, and set directions for future initiatives. The 3 rounds of the Delphi survey were conducted between September 2018 and February 2019.Results: From the first-round Delphi survey, which inquired about the 10 key character elements required for medical students, a total of 420 elements were collected. The top 10 categories were selected and classified. After the second and third rounds of the Delphi consensus process and a series of CG meetings, the following 8 core categorical elements were identified: service and sacrifice, empathy and communication, care and respect, honesty and humility, responsibility and calling, collaboration and magnanimity, creativity and positivity, and patience and leadership. The average score of medical graduates for the core elements ranged from 2.45 to 3.46 (standard deviation, 0.23–0.60) on a 5-point Likert scale.Conclusion: Eight core categorical elements of the character of medical students were identified. The results of this study can be used as a reference for establishing the goals and desired outcomes of character education at the level of undergraduate or graduate medical education.

의과대학생의 정신건강과 스트레스 대처방식 건양대학교 의과대학 1 의학교육학교실, 2 간호학과, 3 의과학대학 치위생학과, 4 재활복지교육대학 사회복지학과, 5 의과대학 약리학교실 Purpose: Recently, concern of the college students' mental health has increased due to their continuous psychologic problems such as suicidal attempt. This study aimed to examine the correlation among depression, stress, self-esteem, and coping strategies of the medical students and also according to the academic year. Methods: The subject was 384 medical students of K medical school in Korea. Self-rating depression scale, stress scale, self-esteem scale was used for the survey, and academic stress and coping strategies of the students were asked. Frequency analysis, one-way ANOVA, t-test, correlation analysis was carried out. Results: Third year students were under most stress (F=5.67, p=0.000) and had the most students who were moderately (22.9%) and mildly depressed (6.3%). Stress form academic studies and grade was also the highest in third year students. For English fluency, freshmen students scored the top. Academic career stress and school culture stress were higher for year 3, 4, 5, 6 than year 1, 2 students. Differences of the coping strategies by academic year was significant in emotional display. Students who showed high level of depression and stress, also students with low self-esteem used emotional display as their major coping strategy. Conclusion: Depending on their academic year medical students' level of depression and stress was different, and they did not use a variety of coping strategies. Therefore, a program which can give a diverse access to variety of coping strategies to relieve students' stress should be developed taking their characteristics of academic year into consideration.

PurposePatient-centred care can increase patient satisfaction and lead to better clinical outcomes for them, such as improved physical status and higher health-related quality of life. However, doctors’ and patients’ views on patient-centred attitude might differ and could be affected by culture and the community environment. To clarify the differences in primary care patients’ and senior medical students’ perceptions of medical students’ patient-centred attitude. MethodsA total of 1,025 subjects—827 patients from primary care institutions and 198 fourth-year medical students from a medical college in South Korea—completed the Patient Practitioner Orientation Scale (PPOS). The students completed the self-reported questionnaire at the end of their clinical clerkship. Descriptive statistics, t-tests, and one-way analysis of variances were conducted in SPSS version 21.0. ResultsFirstly, sharing subscale scores were higher among patients than among medical students (students, 3.61 vs. patients, 3.76; p<0.001), but secondly, caring subscale scores were higher among medical students (students, 4.18 vs. patients, 3.82; p<0.001). Thirdly, PPOS total scores were higher among medical students (students, 3.90 vs. patients, 3.79; p=0.001). Finally, male students had the lowest sharing scores (F=6.811, p<0.001) and female students showed the highest PPOS total scores (F=5.805, p=0.001). ConclusionSignificant differences between medical students’ and patients’ perceptions of medical students’ patient-centred attitudes suggest the necessity of educational efforts to overcome the gap between the groups.

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Background: In the recent past, many medical schools have adopted the problem-based learning (PBL) method in their curriculum. Aim: The key in this type of learning is the small group, which encourages students to perform and, thus, to learn effectively. This means the students must be grouped in such a way for the small group to facilitate the achievement of a better learning outcome. Methods: Using Felder's Learning Inventory, three groups of students were formed: active, reflective and a control with no particular propensity. Results: Some interesting results were found. Active learners did not have the highest score in any of the tested areas. Instead, the reflective group of learners had the best outcome in participation, and the control group showed the best teamwork in a PBL setting. Conclusion: Overall, we have found that grouping students according to their varying learning styles can be very useful for specific and various learning outcomes.