The Future Roles of Korean Doctors: Cultivating Well‐Rounded Doctors

Abstract

Much of the behavior of doctors reflects the influences from the social, cultural, historical, and economic environment of the time. Therefore, it is very important for future doctors to understand the practice environment in an ever changing world. Traditionally, doctors’ competence has been based on the doctor-patient relationship. However, the social practice of medicine in the contemporary era asks future doctors to have social competencies, which often are defined as non-clinical competencies. As a global project, the World Federation for Medical Education has urged every country to define the future role of doctors to encompass global roles based on the duty toward and value of clinical as well as non-clinical competencies. In the past four years, Korean medical professional societies have coordinated to set forth the global role of Korean doctors. Five domains of clinical competence, professionalism, social accountability, communication and collaboration, and education and research have been chosen. The current version of the “global role of Korean doctors” can be used not only for the common objectives of medical education, but also for translating into the competencies of doctors that can be achieved through life-long learning. If we all want to improve medical education in order to produce more qualified and competent doctors as the public desires, then it may be the most urgent task to produce doctors who are equipped with social competencies to persuade, negotiate, and engage in constructive dialogues with society for better health care for a better society.