Current status of Kampo medicine curricula in all Japanese medical schools

BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine

Shun-ichiro Izumi⁵  Toshihiko Hanawa¹  Takao Namiki³  Shin-ichi Muramatsu⁴  Shuichi Katai²  Makoto Arai⁶ 

[1] Oriental Medicine Research Center, Kitasato University, 5-9-1 Shirokane, Minato-ku, Tokyo, 108-8641, Japan;Faculty of Health Sciences, Tsukuba University of Technology, 4-12-7 Kasuga, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8521, Japan;Department of Japanese-Oriental (Kampo) Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, 1-8-1 Inohana, Chuo-ku, Chiba, 260-8670, Japan;Division of Oriental Medicine, Center for Community Medicine, Jichi Medical University, 3311-1 Yakushiji, Shimotsuke, Tochigi, 329-0498, Japan;Department of Academic and Student Services, Tokai University School of Medicine, 143 Shimokasuya, Isehara, Kanagawa, 259-1193, Japan;Department of Oriental Medicine, Tokai University School of Medicine, 143 Shimokasuya, Isehara, Kanagawa, 259-1193, Japan

关键词: Questionnaire survey;    Curriculum standardization;    Medical school;    Education;    Traditional Japanese medicine;    Kampo medicine;   

Others  :  1231513
DOI  :  10.1186/1472-6882-12-207

 received in 2012-03-02, accepted in 2012-10-31,  发布年份 2012

【 摘 要 】

Background

There have been a few but not precise surveys of the current status of traditional Japanese Kampo education at medical schools in Japan. Our aim was to identify problems and suggest solutions for a standardized Kampo educational model for all medical schools throughout Japan.

Methods

We surveyed all 80 medical schools in Japan regarding eight items related to teaching or studying Kampo medicine: (1) the number of class meetings, target school year(s), and type of classes; (2) presence or absence of full-time instructors; (3) curricula contents; (4) textbooks in use; (5) desire for standardized textbooks; (6) faculty development programmes; (7) course contents; and (8) problems to be solved to promote Kampo education. We conducted descriptive analyses without statistics.

Results

Eighty questionnaires were collected (100%). (1) There were 0 to 25 Kampo class meetings during the 6 years of medical school. At least one Kampo class was conducted at 98% of the schools, ≥4 at 84%, ≥8 at 44%, and ≥16 at 5%. Distribution of classes was 19% and 57% for third- and fourth-year students, respectively. (2) Only 29% of schools employed full-time Kampo medicine instructors. (3) Medicine was taught on the basis of traditional Japanese Kampo medicine by 81% of the schools, Chinese medicine by 19%, and Western medicine by 20%. (4) Textbooks were used by 24%. (5) Seventy-four percent considered using standardized textbooks. (6) Thirty-three percent provided faculty development programmes. (7) Regarding course contents, “characteristics” was selected by 94%, “basic concepts” by 84%, and evidence-based medicine by 64%. (8) Among the problems to be solved promptly, curriculum standardization was selected by 63%, preparation of simple textbooks by 51%, and fostering instructors responsible for Kampo education by 65%.

Conclusions

Japanese medical schools only offer students a short time to study Kampo medicine, and the impetus to include Kampo medicine in their curricula varies among schools. Future Kampo education at medical schools requires solving several problems, including curriculum standardization.

【 授权许可】

   
2012 Arai et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

【 图 表 】

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