Source: Zhongshan School of Medicine
Written by: Zhongshan School of Medicine
Edited by: Wang Dongmei

Zhongshan School of Medicine (ZSSOM) at Sun Yat-sen University (SYSU) invited four experienced Canadian professors from the University of British Columbia (UBC) to offer a “Clinical skills training session” in the summer of 2014. About 60 students from the 8 year program of clinical medicine participated in the training.

This clinical course, open to the undergraduates in ZSSOM, is a high quality import from UBC by SYSU.  Three senior UBC rheumatologists, Prof. Barry Koehler, Dr. Ian Tseng and Dr Simon Huang, together with a young specialist in their fellowship program, conducted the training in English and team-teaching environment. The teaching team also included an English teacher from the Foreign Language Center of ZSSOM and doctors in the rheumatic departments of The First Affiliated Hospital and The Third Affiliated Hospital of SYSU.
 

 Hospital practice
 

Prof. Gao Guoquan, vice dean of ZSSOM, met the four Canadian teachers on August 31 and expressed hearty appreciations for their work here, particularly for their bringing the world’s advanced rheumatological knowledge and clinical skills to our students. Then the two-week session began the following day on September 1. The training covered both classroom lectures and hospital practice in rheumatology. Each lecture lasted three hours and was given in the mornings. With abundant interaction and witty quizzes between the teachers and the students, the lecture atmosphere was interesting and lively, and students showed great interest in the class. During the afternoon clinical session, students went through a tough western style of clinical skills practice where they talked face-to-face with the real patients, taking histories and performing physicals. Most students found themselves fascinated with the rich experience and skillful professionalism, humorous teaching styles and charming personalities of the UBC teachers embodied in their bedside manners, which also revealed great compassion and concerns for the patients’ needs. The teachers, on the other hand, were impressed by the students’ strong desire to cultivate their medical abilities and their smooth English communication skills. 

On Sept 12, the two-week clinical training session concluded with a heated group competition acting as overall evaluation and demonstration of what they learned.  All participants passed the test and everyone was granted a certificate jointly issued by UBC and ZSSOM.
 

Group photo
 

Through this course, students not only acquired the relevant expertise in clinical medicine and a deeper understanding of the professional quality of a doctor, but also enjoyed a great improvement in their medical English proficiency. Many students wished to have more international practical courses as such in the summer semesters in the future. The UBC teachers highly commended the SYSU students’ thirst for knowledge and outstanding English communication ability. They also expressed their willingness to come and teach again next year.

Related background information:
"The clinical skills training session in English”, funded by the Ministry of Education in China and the SYSU specific fund, has been offered to the medical students in the major of clinical medicine every summer since 2009. After 6 years of continuous refinement, the course has established itself as the “most internationalized summer session” in ZSSOM and the “excellent imported course from abroad” in SYSU. The program is a key part of the ZSSOM project entitled “Station and Teach” for foreign experts, and is widely recognized by UBC and other peers home and abroad. It provides valuable insights into team-teaching, and English-mediated medical education while strengthening the interchange from preclinical to clinical studies.