한,미 의과대학 과정에서의 정신의학 교육 현황 비교 -Cornell의대와 서울의대의 경우-

Abstract

1. Having had an opportunity to visit the Department of Psychiatry, Cornell University Medical School for 3 months in 1979~ 1980, the author hereby presents some basic differences between Cornell and the Seoul National University College of Medicine in educational policies, plans of instruction and faculty structure in the present status of psychiatric education for the medical students, as follows: (1) The numbers of medical students in each year class are 110 at Cornell University and 160 at the Seoul National University. (2) Cornell University has 78 full-time faculty members and 185 additional volunteer faculty who regularly involve in teaching while the Seoul Natio· nal University has 5 in full-time and 17 in volunteer faculty, and therefore the former has 15and 10 times more faculty members than the latter has. In addition, Cornell University has 308members as teaching resource, who are fellows in teaching and research and adjunctive professors while the Seoul National University has none of those. (3) Total hours assigned to psychiatric education in 4 years of medical school period are 376 hours at Cornell and 192 hours at the Seoul, and the percentages of hours of psychiatric education in the whole curriculum at Cornell is 6.8% in contrast to 3.9% at the Seoul National University. (4) Cornell University starts psychiatric education in the first year of medical school while the other starts in the second year. (5) They, at Cornell, put more emphasis on behavioral sciences, human development through life cycle, communication skills and the doctor-patient relationship, and a significant portion of teaching is done in non-psychiatric settings as the goal of education is to make primary care physicians, while the Seoul National University puts more emphasis on human development through life cycle and clinical psychiatry. 2. The following reasons seem to attribute to relatively high emphasis on psychiatic education in the United States in comparison to relatively low status of it in Korea: (1) The United States is the place of "melting-pot" of various cultures, the degree of tension and conflicts in each individual and in society is higher, and more people seek psychiatric helps. (2) The causality theory of dynamic psychiatry and psychoanalysis is marc appealling to the American culture which puts high values on "autonomy and independence" in each individual. (3) Loneliness, as a modern industrialized country, more prevails in the United States. (4) In Korea, there is relative lack of understanding of modern dynamic human psychology in general population and in circles of medical authorities.