-Review-

Unique Medical Education Programs at Nippon Medical School

Toshiro Shimura¹, Akinobu Yoshimura¹, Takuya Saito^1,2 and Ryoko Aso¹

¹Academic Quality and Development Office, Nippon Medical School
²Department of Psychiatry, Nippon Medical School

In an attempt to improve the content of the educational programs offered by Nippon Medical School and to better prepare our students to work in the rapidly changing world of medicine, the school has recently revamped its teaching methodology. Particular emphasis has been placed on 1) simulator-based education involving the evaluation of students and residents in a new clinical simulation laboratory; 2) improving communication skills with the extensive help of simulated patients; 3) improving medical English education; 4) providing early clinical exposure with a one-week clinical nursing program for the first year students to increase student motivation at an early stage in their studies; 5) a new program called Novel Medical Science, which aims to introduce first-year students to the school's fundamental educational philosophy and thereby increase their motivation to become ideal physicians. The programs have been designed in line with 2006 guidelines issued by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology to allow flexibility for students to take part in education outside their own departments and year groups as part of the Ministry's program to encourage distinctive education at Japanese universities.

J Nippon Med Sch 2008; 75: 196-201

Keywords
medical education, simulation, simulated patient, medical English, early clinical exposure

Correspondence to
Toshiro Shimura, MD, Academic Quality and Development Office, Nippon Medical School, 1-1-5 Sendagi, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8602, Japan
t-simura@nms.ac.jp

Received, June 13, 2008
Accepted, July 8, 2008