title: Students' view upon graduation: a survey of medical education in Taiwan.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Improving the quality of medical education is a key goal of government policy in Taiwan. The aim of this study was to reflect the responses of medical education from the perspective of graduating medical students in Taiwan. This is the first survey study of medical education in Taiwan.
  
  
  METHODS
  Using the Medical School Graduation Questionnaire from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), we distributed 406 questionnaires to medical students of four medical schools in their last semester, and received 270 back (response rate, 66.5%). There were 11 medical schools in Taiwan. Most questions were assessed on a 5-point Likert scale.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Students identified genetics, biochemistry, and ethics as the three most important premedical subjects preparing them for medical education and gross anatomy, physiology, and pharmacology as the three most helpful basic science subjects preparing them for clinical clerkships and electives. Most Taiwanese students were satisfied with their learning experience in internal medicine. Only 55.9% of students were confident that they had acquired the clinical skills required to become a resident, and 70.7% were satisfied with the quality of their medical education.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The study offers preliminary results on the views of graduating students on the medical education system in Taiwan. In particular, our government and medical educators need to continuously put more effort into building students' confidence in their clinical skills.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Wan Fang Hospital, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan. wingchan@tmu.edu.tw
authors.forename: Wing P
authors.initials: WP
authors.lastname: Chan
authors.forename: Ting-Yu
authors.initials: TY
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Ming-Shium
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Hsieh
authors.forename: Ting-Ywan
authors.initials: TY
authors.lastname: Chou
authors.forename: Chih-Shung
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Wong
authors.forename: Ji-Tseng
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Fang
authors.forename: Nen-Chung
authors.initials: NC
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.forename: Chuang-Ye
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Hong
authors.forename: Chii-Ruey
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Tzeng
mesh_terms: D003258:Consumer Behavior; D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate / Q000592:standards*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D020377:Self Efficacy; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013624:Taiwan