title: Transformation of the education of health professionals in China: progress and challenges.
abstract: In this Review we examine the progress and challenges of China's ambitious 1998 reform of the world's largest health professional educational system. The reforms merged training institutions into universities and greatly expanded enrolment of health professionals. Positive achievements include an increase in the number of graduates to address human resources shortages, acceleration of production of diploma nurses to correct skill-mix imbalance, and priority for general practitioner training, especially of rural primary care workers. These developments have been accompanied by concerns: rapid expansion of the number of students without commensurate faculty strengthening, worries about dilution effect on quality, outdated curricular content, and ethical professionalism challenged by narrow technical training and growing admissions of students who did not express medicine as their first career choice. In this Review we underscore the importance of rebalance of the roles of health sciences institutions and government in educational policies and implementation. The imperative for reform is shown by a looming crisis of violence against health workers hypothesised as a result of many factors including deficient educational preparation and harmful profit-driven clinical practices.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Medical Education, Peking University, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Jianlin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hou
authors.affiliation: China Medical Board, Cambridge, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Catherine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Michaud
authors.affiliation: China Medical Board, Cambridge, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Zhihui
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Institute of Medical Education, Peking University, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Zhe
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Dong
authors.affiliation: Center for Medical Education Research, China Medical University, Shenyang, China.
authors.forename: Baozhi
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Health Human Resources Development Center, Ministry of Health, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Junhua
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China.
authors.forename: Depin
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.affiliation: West China School of Medicine and West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.
authors.forename: Xuehong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wan
authors.affiliation: West China School of Public Health and No. 4 West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.
authors.forename: Cheng
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zeng
authors.affiliation: Guangxi Food and Drug Administration, Nanning, China.
authors.forename: Bo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.affiliation: Xiangya School of Medicine, Changsha, China.
authors.forename: Lijian
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Tao
authors.affiliation: West China School of Public Health and No. 4 West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.
authors.forename: Xiaosong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Peking University Health Science Center, China.
authors.forename: Weimin
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Shanghai Medical College, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Yingqing
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: Jiujiang University Medical Center, Jiujiang, China.
authors.forename: Xiulong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Xia
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing, Peking University, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Guifang
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, China.
authors.forename: Zhiyong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, China.
authors.forename: Yunfei
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.affiliation: Office of Educational Administration, Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Yuanzhi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Guan
authors.affiliation: China Center for Health Development Studies, Peking University, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Qingyue
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Meng
authors.affiliation: Shanghai Medical College, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Qing
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Resources, China Medical University, Shenyang, China.
authors.forename: Yuhong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing, Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Huaping
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Ministry of Education, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Huiqing
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: Peking University Health Science Center, China. Electronic address: keyang@bjmu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ke
authors.affiliation: China Medical Board, Cambridge, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Lincoln
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D002681:China; D004510:Education, Nursing, Diploma Programs; D058006:General Practice / Q000193:education; D006281:Health Occupations / Q000193:education*; D006280:Health Workforce / Q000639:trends; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D012577:Schools, Medical / Q000639:trends; D013663:Teaching / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends