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Why medical school students give up pursuing public health jobs
  • By Song Soo-youn
  • Published 2020.08.26 16:21
  • Updated 2020.08.27 13:25
  • comments 0

A total of 2,811 seniors of the six-year medical colleges and the four-year medical graduate schools have recently refused to take clinical exams, required before the state medical licensing exam. The number accounts for 92 percent of the total seniors of medical schools, and only the rest 225 students are willing to take the clinical exams.

The massive cancellations of the clinical exams, if left unchanged, will make the nation produce only 7 percent of new doctors that would otherwise come out next year. This is exactly the opposite of the effect that the government had intended with its plan to increase medical school admissions.

Medical school students also refused to receive clinical training and vowed to boycott classes. This means that their opposition to the government’s plan could prolong for several years. Some dismiss their collective actions as childish behavior. Others criticize them for selfishly caring only for their benefits. An online user posted a petition on Cheong Wa Dae not to allow medical licenses for those who refused to take state licensing exams.

Students had already expected that they would come under fire, and that was why they felt “scared and frightened,” they said. However, as the government’s policy would directly affect their future, they could not just sit back and watch, they added.

Kim Ki-deok (left), vice president of the Korean Medical School Students Association, and Lee Ye-seul, a member of the association’s task force for medical policy normalization, explain why medical school students refused to take the state medical licensing exam on a YouTube show on Friday.

Medical school students claim that although many of them want to work in the public healthcare sector, reality makes them give up their dreams. Without improving work conditions in the public health industry, simply increasing medical school admissions quotas and establishing a public medical school will not help create more doctors in the public health sector, they said.

Kim Ki-deok, vice president of the Korean Medical School Students Association, and Lee Ye-seul, a member of the association’s task force for medical policy normalization, appeared on a YouTube show on Friday to deliver their message clearly.

Kim, who refused to take the state clinical exam, said he was worried to do so, but joined the move because it was “important to go in the right direction.” He said medical school students’ refusal to take the state exam was almost equal to trainee doctors’ one-year strike.

“If interns are not produced because of reduced new doctors, university hospitals will find it difficult to function. This is all because the Korean healthcare system is distorted,” Kim said.

“Interns and residents need medical training. If the medical system does not function because of their strike, it means that our healthcare system is wrong. It’s not something that we should blame trainee doctors and medical school students.”

Kim went on to say that it was only three years ago when the government ordered Seonam University’s College of Medicine to shut down. After the school closure, 49 students of Seonam University were scattered to neighboring medical schools to attend classes.

The government could not even provide proper education for the 49 students while claiming to increase the number of medical school students by 400, Kim argued. He felt worried if increased medical school students would receive sufficient education because the number of professors per medical school student was relatively small in Korea, he said.

Kim also claimed that the government’s plan to increase manpower in the public health sector through more medical school admissions was not feasible.

He cited a survey by the medical students’ association in June, saying 22.8 percent of the respondents said they wanted to work in the public health sector. However, in reality, less than 10 percent of doctors work in the field, he said. “If the government provides an environment where existing medical school students can choose where they want to work, the nation can double the manpower of the public health,” he said.

Junior doctors avoid working in the public health industry or difficult departments such as surgery because they do not see a bright future when they see senior doctors in such fields, Kim said.

Many of Kim’s fellow medical school students said they wanted to become a famous surgeon like Lee Cook-jong but they gave up the dream after seeing senior doctors work in poor conditions, according to Kim. “One professor at a surgery department’s clinical practice training got an urgent call at 1 a.m., performed surgery for eight hours, and immediately began the round. Then, he saw outpatients and left work at 7-8 p.m.,” he said.

Some doctors become surgeons despite such demanding work but end up going to skin cosmetics because hospitals do not hire them, he added.

When the government said it would expand medical school admissions, it said increased doctors will become epidemiological investigators, severe trauma surgeons, and pediatric surgeons. Kim is interested in becoming an epidemiologist. However, an epidemiologist’s future did not look promising to him. Employment was unstable and the Korean society did not seem to recognize an epidemiological investigator’s autonomy or expertise, he said.

The government’s proposal to allocate some medical school students to become regional doctors would be barely effective, Kim also said.

Medical school students admitted under the special admission procedure for regional doctors have to work at a public medical institution within the region for 10 years. The 10 years include the medical training period as a trainee doctor.

“I wonder a high school graduate, without any knowledge about the field, would keep his or her intention to work in the public health field after entering a college and getting medical training,” Kim said.

To become a pediatric surgeon or an infectious disease specialist, he or she should also undergo special training. After the license of a specialist, the doctor could work in the region for one or two years and leave for another city, he argued.

Kim said he did not mean that the government should completely withdraw its plan to increase doctors. Rather, medical school students want the government to discuss the issue from scratch, he said. “We should discuss this from the ground up, ensuring that students’ rights to education are not infringed upon,” Kim emphasized.

Lee Ye-seul, president of the student association of Kosin University College of Medicine, said medical school students faced prejudice often when they tried to deliver their messages to the public. “I hope we can get our messages crossed to the public without any distortion,” she said.

soo331@docdocdoc.co.kr

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