title: Feasibility of implementing a surgical student internship program in South Korea.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Despite recommendations for introducing student internships (SI) in undergraduate medical education in Korea, the feasibility of surgical SIs has not been demonstrated in the Korean context. We thus identified tasks that could be performed by surgical student interns in a Korean education hospital.
  
  
  METHODS
  The opinions of surgery clerkship directors of medical schools nationwide, regarding the tasks, symptoms and signs, disease entities, and procedures that student interns could perform in their hospitals, were subjected to descriptive analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Out of the 41 medical schools in Korea, 32 responded. Five implemented an optimal-quality SI program. Two schools considered third-year clerkship as SI. The respondents replied that student interns could be involved in basic nonspecific tasks such as history taking, physical examination, medial recording, reporting patients' status, and assisting during surgery. However, more surgery-specific tasks such as perioperative management or caring for a patient with acute abdominal pain were considered difficult for student interns to encounter in the Korean context.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Surgical educators should determine a specific role for student interns and encourage them to perform surgery-specific tasks. We recommend societal and system support, and curriculum renovation to establish an SI program in Korea.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Education, Inje University College of Medicine, Busan, Korea.
authors.forename: HyeRin
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Roh
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Ajou University School of Medicine, Suwon, Korea.
authors.forename: Ku Sang
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, The Catholic University of Korea College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Kee Hwan
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Konyang University College of Medicine, Daejeon, Korea.
authors.forename: In Seok
authors.initials: IS
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Kyu Eun
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Hyun-Young
authors.initials: HY
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Nam-Joon
authors.initials: NJ
authors.lastname: Yi
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Sun-Whe
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Hanyang University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Min Gyu
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Kim
keywords: Clinical clerkship; Clinical competence; Undergraduate medical education
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