Reflections on the Reform of Medical Practitioners Education for Clinical Students: Solutions in the Context of the Law
In order to enable students to understand occupational health regulations and improve the knowledge structure of medical students, reflections have been made on the reform of the education of medical practitioners with solutions based on the content of the law. Since the implementation of China’s Medical Practitioners Law on September 1, 1999, the teaching content is still relatively new and requires further development and improvement in curriculum areas. In recent years, many changes in healthcare practice have also brought new requirements to the course of teaching. The following is an analysis of some problems encountered in recent years during the teaching of the Medical Practitioners course along with suggestions for reform.
Since the 1980s, the vast majority of medical schools across the country have established courses in health law, and currently, most of the teaching content related to medical practitioners is placed within the health law curriculum. Although medical practitioners constitute only a small branch of health law, it is closely related to the clinical and professional practice of students. However, within the extensive health law system, medical practitioners represent only a small part, causing issues such as dispersed teaching focus, lack of coordination between lecture content and actual teaching objectives, and negatively impacting the further deepening of medical practitioners teaching. This has objectively made it difficult for students not engaged in clinical practice to master and apply health law-related aspects that are closely associated with clinical activities, guiding their future practice.
It is necessary to carve out specialized teaching groups from the health law curriculum system to conduct detailed and in-depth explanations of medical practitioners teaching. Clinical teaching inevitably involves patients, medical institutions, and relationships concerning relevant legal issues throughout the teaching process. Teaching should be arranged prior to student clinical teaching in Basic Medical Education.
The content of the Medical Practitioners articles mostly relates to the context of health administration law enforcement, civil, and criminal matters, but there is no detailed explanation in the regulations. A prominent feature of our medical disputes is that a large number are resolved through legal channels. When resolving medical disputes, the content of the Medical Practitioners Law does not fully align with tort liability methods. Relevant legal knowledge must be introduced to students, including civil, criminal, and administrative law relationships. It is necessary to add introductions to related civil and criminal laws and regulations, such as the recognition of tort liability commitment and decisions regarding medical malpractice. This will help students gain a full understanding of the legal significance of practice in their future careers, analyze medical dispute cases in judicial practice, and correctly understand and grasp relevant laws, which is greatly beneficial for students. To this end, textbooks, teaching materials, and content need serious in-depth study and discussion to identify contents suitable for the practical needs of medical students.
Teachers, professors, MDs, and law teachers are mainly scholars studying health law and legal professionals focusing on legal practice. Although they have close contact with clinical practice and provide practice guidance, the curriculum lacks personnel with clinical practical work experience, leading to insufficient understanding of clinical practice and medical expertise, as well as a lack of awareness of the content and characteristics of medical disciplines. This makes it difficult to provide profound and in-depth introductions. When taught by clinicians who have rich clinical practice and medical expertise, they may not be familiar with evidence review in medical dispute resolution, judicial practice of medical evidence review, and analysis, nor with civil and criminal laws and regulations. This can impact the alignment of teaching content with practical demands and affect teaching effectiveness. Therefore, seeking personnel with both extensive knowledge content and practical experience to engage in the teaching of medical practitioners has become a current issue that needs addressing.
Forensic science is a discipline that applies medical principles and knowledge to solve medical problems in judicial practice. Forensic identification of medical disputes has gradually been recognized and accepted in recent years. Corresponding to these new phenomena and changes, teaching reforms in physician law can address these shortcomings and introduce a new teaching mode carried out by forensic science teachers. Physicians' practice activities must strictly comply with relevant laws and regulations, and learning these laws and regulations should be as important as training in medical knowledge and skills. Studying the content of physicians' law is not just confined to school stages but should be integrated into the entire knowledge culture system of clinical professionals. Adapting to evolving medical practices, continuous reform of the teaching content and methods of physicians' law is necessary to better serve the cause of normal and healthy development of China's medical field, playing its due role.
[Received Date: July 10, 2007]