Obligation or getaway? A qualitative inquiry into medical professionalism under COVID-19 among medical students and new physicians in a Taiwan hospital.

Objectives: During the COVID-19 outbreak, medical educators' main concern has been how to prepare new physicians and medical students to meet their obligations as healthcare providers under novel circumstances. This study aims at exploring how trainees perceive their commitments as physicians under the threat of a pandemic.

Design: A qualitative method was employed.

Impacts of early clinical exposure on undergraduate student professionalism-a qualitative study.

Introduction: Early clinical exposure (ECE), or authentic human contact in a social or clinical context during preclinical training, has been adopted by many medical schools. This study aims to investigate how medical students' sense of professionalism changed after ECE intervention, with the aim of informing curriculum design to enhance student awareness of the importance of medical professionalism.

Method: Focus groups of ECE students were held to collect data for the study.

Development and application of a chronic kidney disease-specific health literacy, knowledge and disease awareness assessment tool for patients with chronic kidney disease in Taiwan.

Objectives: This study aims to develop an assessment tool for health literacy and knowledge specific to chronic kidney disease (CKD) for use in examining the associations between health literacy, disease-specific knowledge and disease awareness among patients with CKD in Taiwan.

Design: An assessment tool in Mandarin and Taiwanese was developed based on patient input, panel discussions with experts and a literature review, and checked for validity and reliability in a pilot test. Formal data were collected through population-based sampling with a set quota according to region and hospital accreditation level.

Continuity of care: evaluating a multidisciplinary care model for people with early CKD via a nationwide population-based longitudinal study.

Objectives: To control and prevent the burdens associated with chronic kidney disease (CKD), Taiwan's National Health Insurance Administration (NHIA) launched the 'early-CKD programme' in 2011 to extend care and education to patients with CKD. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of the early-CKD programme in terms of continuity of care (COC).

Design And Participants: This study used secondary data from 2010 to 2014 provided by the NHIA to identify 86 581 participants each for the intervention and control groups.

Development of a nursing-specific Mini-CEX and evaluation of the core competencies of new nurses in postgraduate year training programs in Taiwan.

Background: Modern nursing requires a broad set of academic and practical skills, and an effective nurse must integrate these skills in a wide range of healthcare contexts. Cultivation of core competencies has recently become a key issue globally in the development of nursing education. To assess the performance of new nurses, this study developed a nursing-specific Mini-Clinical Evaluation Exercise (Mini-CEX) to evaluate the effect of postgraduate year (PGY) nurse training programs in Taiwan.

The development and use of a pharmacist-specific Mini-CEX for postgraduate year trainees in Taiwan.

Background: Clinical pharmacists must have a complex combination of academic knowledge and practical experience that integrates all aspects of practice. Taiwan's Ministry of Health and Welfare in 2007 launched the Postgraduate Year (PGY) training program to increase the standard of pharmaceutical care. This study aims to develop a pharmacist-specific Chinese-language Mini-Clinical Evaluation Exercise (Mini-CEX) to evaluate the professional development of postgraduate year trainees.

How Plastic Surgeons Value Professionalism: Using Q Methodology to Explore the Prioritization of Professionalism.

Background: Medicine is no longer limited to the treatment of diseases-the use of plastic surgical techniques as a commodity to improve the appearance of healthy people has become a trend, and plastic surgeons who invest in the market of cosmetic medicine have quickly gained considerable benefits. Will the transformation of the role of plastic surgeons from aesthetic restoration to commercial embellishment damage the creation and maintenance of their sense of professionalism?

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to determine, by utilizing Q methodology, which aspects of professionalism plastic surgeons value.

Methods: Q methodology is a mixed research method employed to study subjectivity through factor analysis.

Disease-specific health literacy, disease knowledge, and adherence behavior among patients with type 2 diabetes in Taiwan.

Background: To examine the association between health literacy, level of disease knowledge, and adherence behavior among patients with type 2 diabetes.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey study of 1059 Mandarin- and Taiwanese-speaking patients aged 20 years or older with type 2 diabetes was conducted. The demographic profiles of the sample strata were determined by analyzing the Taiwanese National Health Insurance Database.

Development of a health literacy questionnaire for Taiwanese hemodialysis patients.

Background: Dialysis has long been a critical issue in the field of nephrology, though the burden this lifesaving technology places on society can be immense. Effectively increasing the health literacy of hemodialysis patients can be beneficial for their health outcomes and self-care abilities. Thus, the aims of this study are to: (1) develop a health literacy assessment tool in Chinese for patients receiving hemodialysis treatment; (2) assess the health literacy level of the Taiwanese hemodialysis population using the tool developed.

Perceptions and attitudes of health professionals in kenya on national health care resource allocation mechanisms: a structural equation modeling.

Background: Health care resource allocation is key towards attaining equity in the health system. However, health professionals' perceived impact and attitude towards health care resource allocation in Sub-Saharan Africa is unknown; furthermore, they occupy a position which makes them notice the impact of different policies in their health system. This study explored perceptions and attitudes of health professionals in Kenya on health care resource allocation mechanism.

Exploring factors that have caused a decrease in surgical manpower in Taiwan.

The decreasing availability of surgical physicians is a concern in most countries. In the past decade, total physician manpower in Taiwan increased by 12%, but the number of surgical physicians decreased by 11%. Medical students are not inclined to choose surgery as a career--this study examines the factors involved in students' career choices.

Medical education in Taiwan.

Taiwan's medical education system bears a close relationship with its colonial and post-colonial history. Since the late nineteenth century, Western medicine, Chinese medicine, and the practice of the other forms of traditional healing have encountered complex transactions with the state and one another, eventually evolving into the present medical system. Nowadays, the mainstream form of medical education in Taiwan is a 7-year Western program; other forms of medical education include a 5-year graduate program and traditional medicine programs.

Historical context for the growth of medical professionalism and curriculum reform in Taiwan.

Medical school curricular reform to address humanism is now a prominent issue in Taiwan. Taiwan's community of medical professionals have for the last 100 years played a leading role in the nation's modernization and democratization. With the democratic opening of 1990, they took up the cause of humanistic reform of medical education.