A programme of accelerated medical education in Taiwan

BACKGROUND: Graduates of the 7-year undergraduate medical curriculum in Taiwan are often deficient in clinical skills. AIMS: To implement and assess a programme of accelerated clinical education. METHOD: 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. RESULTS: 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. CONCLUSION: 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.