Global Minimum Essential Requirements (GMER) is focused on training medical students to equip them with the scientific foundation of medicine, clinical techniques, a doctor’s professional ethos, social sciences, health economics, medical information management and communication skills, etc. Based on GMER and its evaluation and through the integration of GMER’s seven requirements into the objectives of the clinical-medicine major, Shanxi Medical University is reforming medical education to carry forward high quality education in a comprehensive way. These reforms include adjustments in the content, methods and means of the teaching in order to improve teaching conditions and optimize the curriculum structure, and to enhance the quality of education. At the same time the management system is being reformed and sustainability-featured mechanisms of management and operation are being created, to make simulated hospital a base wherein GMER is fully followed. Simulated hospital for clinical teaching is built to cultivate the students’ abilities in clinical thinking and clinical education. This takes into full consideration training in professional quality, the cultivation of students’ comprehensive ability and GMER’s aim of reaching the final objective, namely, the following four transformations of the students: from essential knowledge to clinical practice, from single technique to all-round ability, from patterning thought to integrated and innovative thought and from a student of clinical medicine to a professional doctor. The objective is to fulfill the task of teaching clinical medicine in a more favorable way, promoting the reform and development of China’s medical education and keeping pace with changes in medical education elsewhere in the world.
Objective To evaluate the role that problem based learning (PBL) teaching plays in the education of doctors. Methods A total of 240 7-year students who entered the China Medical University in Shenyang in 2004 were divided into two groups: one group used PBL teaching model while the second group used a traditional teaching model. There were 120 students in each group. At the end of the teaching, a questionnaire on PBL teaching model was distributed to the both groups. We organized and classified answers to the questionnaire and conducted statistical analyses. Results Problem based learning is a model for education in which students dominate the course, question the case, look for evidence, participate in the group discussion and reach resolution. This emphasizes the process of learning and the training of student abilities, instead of the teaching of knowledge only. PBL is more effective at meeting the requirements of the global minimum essential requirements in medical education (GMER). Conclusions PBL teaching plays an important role in the training of doctors