Korean doctors' perception on doctor's social competency: based on a survey on doctors

Medicine is the practice that occurs in the context of the society. It requires interaction with individual patients, fellow doctors and other health care professionals, health care officials, public, institution, and the society as a whole. To date, medical practice in Korea has largely been concentrated on applying biomedical knowledge and skill to a patient. We defines 'social competency' as 'competency for medicine as a social institution.' This survey aims to grasp the current situation of Korean doctors' perception on social competency, in terms of necessity, satisfaction, learning experience, and possible intervention. Respondents generally recognized the necessity of social competencies but were not satisfied with their demonstration of those competencies. Competencies for 'understanding on law and institution' and 'communication' were perceived highly necessary. General satisfaction and each satisfaction rate on individual competencies were all below 'neutral,' showing their dissatisfaction. Especially, doctors assess their fellow doctors' competencies for 'understanding on law and institution' and 'understanding on human being and society' at the lowest level. The mismatch between perceived necessity and satisfaction shows the legitimate ground for educational intervention. The proportions of respondents who have learned on each domain of social competency were all below 70%. Learning experience on self-management and leadership was the least. Among possible remedy for low social competency, respondents perceived 'improvement on national health insurance' and 'improvement on resident training program' as the most urgently needed. The data from this preliminary survey can be utilized for educational and institutional intervention in the future.

Doctors' competency and empowerment measures desired by the state and society

The foundation of medical practice is the doctor-patient relationship. Before the implementation of National Health Insurance in Korea, it was not easy for patients to access doctors, and the doctor-patient relationship was immature. This study aims to describe doctors' social competency and determine measures of its strength in Korea. The current status of research on doctors' social competency in Korea and other countries was reviewed. There is recognition that Korean doctors have confidence in their medical knowledge, but their leadership in the health care sector and society is insufficient. A survey of citizens' expectations regarding doctors' social competency shows that they are not satisfied with their doctors' communication, and feel their doctors have not fulfilled their leadership duties as influential members of society e main reason for respondents' dissatisfaction was the doctors' pursuit of profit. They expected that the quality of care would increase if doctors' social capabilities were strengthened and both the doctors themselves and the government were to participate in capacity building. The preferable approach to reinforcing the social ability of doctors is to include medical humanities and social science in the medical education curriculum. Then, medical students can grow as good doctors and effective leaders. Several reports from outside Korea have confirmed this. Doctors need to recognize that the concept of health is broad, encompassing societal factors as one of the determinants of health. In conclusion, the effort of the community as a whole is needed for strengthening the social competence of doctors in Korea.

What is the social competency for doctors?

Practicing medicine is a social activity. Because doctor-patient interaction requires respect, leadership, and interpersonal skills that extend beyond medical diagnosis and treatment, medical education must incorporate non-clinical competencies. While qualities such as lifelong learning skills, resource management, teamwork skills, and active involvement in leadership and bettering the healthcare system have received little attention in medical academia, these competencies have proven vital for a physician in contemporary society. These non-clinical competencies are, in fact, the traits or components of social competency. Social competency has been an area of interest, particularly with regard to the development of children and adolescents, in the fields of education, psychology, and less commonly, economics. However, traditional Korean residency programs have not paid much attention to social competency due to their closed culture originating from the colonial period. Resident education is still heavily dependent on a patriarchal system based on "family" values. Resident education is concentrated in medical knowledge and skills within specialty departments functioning as a family-like unit. Specialty training has a very narrow, constrained vision without incorporating much education on the social dimension of medical practice. Nevertheless, developing a social competency scheme for resident education was initiated in 2008, when the Korean Medical Association celebrated the centennial of producing licensed physicians. However, the scheme is still under development and not widely used. Korean medical educators must, therefore, recognize the value of social competencies and include them as graduation outcomes of residency training to prepare doctors to meet the challenges of the future.

A survey on the family and clinical characteristics and social competency of children and adolescents who talk about killing self / 中华行为医学与脑科学杂志

Objective To analyze the family and clinical characteristics of talking about killing self (TAKS) among children and adolescents and its relationship with social competency.Methods One thousand nine hundred and seventy-five 7-17-year-old students from 12 schools (each four for primary,middle and high schools) of Wuhan area,were approached through multistage random cluster sampling,and administered with a self-designed general information questionnaire and the Chinese version of Children' s Depression Inventory.In addition,subjects' parents completed Achenbach' s Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL).TAKS was judged based on item 91 (talk about killing self) of CBCL.Multiple Logistic Regression was used to identify factors associated with TAKS.Results The half-year prevalence rate (95％ CI) of parent-reported TAKS was 4.1％ (3.2％,5.0％).TAKS was significantly associated with bad marital status of parents (OR=2.29),unemployment of fathers (OR=2.07),frequently jangling between father and mother (OR=2.23),parents ever having fought with each other intensely (OR=2.00),being frequently bullied by classmates (OR=2.11),internal behavior problem (OR=2.28),external behavior problem (OR=2.50) and depressive symptoms (OR=4.83).TAKS subjects had significantly lower social compctency score than non-TAKS subjects((18.8±7.6) vs.(20.9±6.9),P=0.007).Conclusion The prevalence of TAKS is higher among children and adolescents with several disadvantaged family factors,behavior problems and depression.Children and adolescents with TAKS also have worse social competency.More close clinical attention should be paid to such phenomenon.