As for school work, the courses in the first year focused on general knowledge courses. The second to fourth years began with basic medical courses. He passed the preliminary national examination at the end of the second semester in the fourth year. In the fifth and sixth years, he started the clerk courses. In the seventh year, he became an intern.
Except hardworking to increase knowledge, Dr.Chu also gave us some advices. He told us “To be a doctor ,intelligence is not the most important factor. Instead, patience is.” Most students come into medical school to live up to their parents’ expectations. They will not care their patients from their true heart. It is a long way to be a doctor. In addition to sharpening our skill and absorbing medical knowledge, we should “love” this job. This will influence the attitude we toward patients.
 

And I think the most important time is a R (resident). You at least need to take three years to run almost every department and you need to keep and develop right attitude and compassion. Finally you will find a special department to study. Then you have to face specialist license examination. After you pass it you will have the chance to become a VS(visiting staff)
Q: What is your point of view to the medical education in Taiwan now?
A: I think after SARS the medical education in Taiwan change a lot but there still many things to eager. We want to develop not a cold and calm doctor but a warm and patient doctor so you guys, doctors in the future, need to do your best!!

Medico = Medical student
B.M. = Bachelor of Medicine
Intern
R = Resident
GR = Generl Resident
VS = Visiting Staff
Specialist
M.D. = Medicinae Doctor = Doctor of Medicine
 

First of all, Dr. Shih thinks that the real challenges for a medical student emerge only when the clinical work comes. Therefore, it’s important to master essential medicine such as histology and anatomy. After entering the department of medicine, medical students will be busier and busier, and we will have no time to waste on trifles. So, if we can digest the important points in essential medicine, we will be able to handle the situation and make precise decisions more quickly.
Another crucial thing is our attitude toward patients we faced. In the past, a doctor can make a fortune by opening a private practice, and it seemed that it was very easy to become a rich man by being a doctor. However, such situation has changed nowadays because of the enforcement of the National Health Insurance. Recently, we consider the job of being a doctor included in the service industry. Consequently, as medical students who are going to be doctors in the future, we must adjust our attitude toward patients. In other words, we must learn how to help patients with great passion.
Dr. Shih said that he used to think that everything would go just fine after he graduated from medical school. However, the real situation was not like what he had thought and the two things he mentioned above become much more important. Moreover, they also have a great effect upon our future of becoming doctors.

The knowledge and skills learned in KMC was plentiful. In the first year Dr. Chu picked up the language course in Japanese and Germany. He later found that these foreign languages help in not only practicing basic conversation skills to foreigners, but also realizing the lyrics for those foreign songs. Besides courses, Dr. Chu was active in extracurricular activities. He loves music. Therefore he joined the chorus club and he made up his mind to learn the guitar by himself in the winter vacation. By joining the chorus club, he made friends with lots of people and developed social skills. The core and medical courses started from the second to the fourth years. Then, he learned clinical issues at the fourth year and smoothly passed the preliminary national examination at the end of the second semester. While being asked about what were the most impressive courses to him, he said it was the difficult pharmacology course because he got the highest score in the class. He thought reading textbook is useful to this subject. In the first four years in KMC, Dr. Chu mostly learned from books, but the rest were not.
Like other medical students in Taiwan, Dr. Chu spent most of his time in hospital in the rest of 3 years. In the fifth and sixth years, he started the clerk training courses. In the fifth year he took the rotation round in the department of internal medicine, surgery, obstetrics & gynecology and pediatrics and he was in other departments in the sixth year. It’s special to note that Dr. Chu participated in Asian-Pacific Medical Students’ Association (APMSA) in Taiwan in the fifth year. In the seventh year, he became an intern. Under the supervision and cover of residents, he started to perform real medical practice. And Dr. Chu passed the clinical national examination before graduation.
Though he finally became a doctor after 7 years, Dr. Chu never stopped learning. He started to learn after patients. He joined the army for 2 years in the small island Ma-Tsu as the solider medical doctor taking cares the people over there. And then, he applied for resident. He got admission to the obstetrics & gynecology department of Mackay Memorial Hospital and the department of internal medicine of National Taiwan University Hospital. However, he still chose the department of internal medicine of Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital. After 3 years residency training in the department of internal medicine, followed by 2 year cardiology residency’s training as the chief resident, he became the attending physician in cardiology. During the period, he got several profession certificates. Nowadays, Dr. Chu is assistant professor in Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine of Kaohsiung Medical University and majors in the research of serious heart disease and molecular biology. He keeps doing his best on everything.
In the end of our interview, Dr. Chu encourages us to improve our language abilities and professional knowledge, to cultivate some life-long hobbies, and to find leading models to learn from them in our college life!

Second, when medical students (or called intern) are in the sixth grade, they have to go to a teaching hospital to exercise their skills in clinical medicine.
This curriculum will last for two years. During these two years, students should think about which aspect (doctor) they want to be in the future. And then they need to go to the clinical exam. If they pass the exam smoothly, they are eligible doctors but they can just serve as family medicine doctor.
Third, most of students will choose to become specialty doctors. They have to undergo more ordeals: they need to find a resident physician job in a hospital. Every resident physician takes different time, for instance, a surgeon needs to spend about six years, however, it takes only two years for physician to finish the resident.
After finish the resident, these doctors have to accept the final exam: the exam of specialty. And they become truly doctors eventually.

From the viewpoint of non-medical training, you have to learn ethics and reasonable attitude towards patients. Good social skills are also needed. A doctor needs to communicate with not only his patients but also his co-workers. No one can deal with all the diseases alone. When you are an intern, the teachers who lead you can also be a role model of your career life. Try to observe how they interact with others.
After years of accumulating knowledge and invaluable moral experiences, you must be ready to practice medicine. Be sure that you have the access to the latest information of medicine and always be an active student.

The faculty of medicine in Taiwan is consisted of seven years to learn enough knowledge the students need in the future. In the first to fourth years, the courses are Liberal and Clinical studies. After the forth grade, the place where they learn skills is changed into the hospital. In two years, they are called Clerks, following the doctors to learn how to do. In the last year, they will be Interns to apply what they have learned practically.
Taiwan also has five years of post-Bachelor Medical Department, including one year of intern course. Besides, passing two stages of National Examination is required to be qualified as a doctor.
There are six important abilities that a doctor must acquire. First, patient care, which demands patience and empathy. Second, medical knowledge. Before becoming a doctor, we have to know how human bodies work and how diseases happen so that we can make right decisions to prescribe medicine. Third, we have to learn from the work, which goes to “Practice-based learning and improving”.
Fourth, ” system-based practice”. It means we have to follow the rules and laws under the medical system so that the system may be completed. Fifth, professionalism. With 7-year-medical courses and training, we must acquire not only medical knowledge but also professional medical skills.
Last but not the least, we need to have interpersonal and communication skills since then, we can make ourselves to understand and build good relationships with patients.
In addition, because nowadays, interns ask for their rights, they practice less than the precedent doctors. To prevent from low healing quality, a law must be made. Every student must practice what they have learned from their intern period during their first year of becoming doctors. It is believed to complement the experience they don’t have.

After graduation, we can apply for residents in different hospitals. At the same time, we have to pass the Junior Professional & Technical Examinations for Medical Personnel to obtain a medical license. During this period, we have to stay in a hospital to learn how to deal with real situations. After years of strict training, he or she will become a chief resident in accordance with the professional subject he or she chooses. If everything goes well, he or she will be a visiting staff and become a real doctor at the end.