Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
ABSTRACT
How much and how deep medical students are taught in clinical medical education in medical schools is as important ass how to set the objectives in medical education. Until now, every clinical departm ent has been focusing to teach extensively and deeply, sometimes without distinction from resident training. A study shows that ten common diagnoses comprises 60 to 80% of total inpatients discharged from one University hospital in Seoul during the last five years(1986~1990) and ten common procedures were done on about 80% of the total discharged surgical patients.
Since most of medical graduates become specialists, teaching ten common diagnoses and ten procedures in each clinical department should be enough training for medical students to manage common clinical problems. By doing so, at least 70% of total inpatients at tertiary care hospital would be adequately cared for by new graduates.