The author recommends the creation of a nationwide career guidance program at the national level through the establishment of a long-term cohort, involving collaboration among medical schools nationwide. This cohort would be constructed for the purpose of analyzing correlations from admission to medical school to post-graduate education, facilitating the development of a career guidance program. This will aid in career development through students' self-analysis and competency building. Each medical school should operate a systematic career guidance program. Career guidance for post-graduate major selection should be included in the regular curriculum. Schools are advised to operate student counseling rooms for various career guidance services. For example, medical schools can operate 1:1 career counseling, academic counseling, career guidance surveys, psychological tests, and counseling. It is advisable to establish a mentor-professor system, connect mentor professors, and build a network of experts related to majors to provide immediate support according to students' needs. Professional mentor training should be provided to mentor professors. To provide opportunities for students to experience their career paths in advance, early clinical exposure, long-term integrated clinical practice, community-based clinical practice, participation in student research programs, career fairs, and student internship programs are recommended. In South Korea, it is necessary to systematically operate the internship system and make improvements to facilitate optical career choices. Additionally, considering the significant influence of social factors on students' career choices in South Korea, efforts should be made to identify and address the issues related to these social factors.

This study examines a systematic and effective approach to career guidance in medical education, with a particular focus on the 6-year integrated career guidance education framework implemented at the College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea. Based on the "New SLICE" educational development principles, this framework comprehensively addresses the needs of medical students in career planning and development. It is structured into three phases: understanding yourself, exploring options, and choosing a specialty. The first phase, understanding yourself, helps students to recognize their strengths, weaknesses, aptitudes, and potentials, thereby setting the direction for future career choices. This phase includes various psychological tests and Self-Development and Portfolio courses. The second phase, exploring options, enables students to engage in related activities such as research and practical training, providing direct and indirect experiences across various fields. This phase offers courses including Medical Field Experience, Career Guidance through the Learning Community & Advisory Professors, and Student Participation in Professor Research Projects. The final phase, choosing a specialty, involves students making decisions based on in-depth self-assessment and exploration of majors, with a capstone project being a significant component. Maximizing the efficiency of career decision-making requires integration between the basic medical curriculum and postgraduate education. Including the period up to residency entrance in the framework is necessary for effective career guidance education.

Medical students' career choices hold significant importance at both individual and national levels. Therefore, Chungnam National University College of Medicine aimed to systematize its revised career fair in 2022, basing its efforts on a career planning process model. Chungnam National University College of Medicine sought to formalize the design process by utilizing the ADDIE model (analysis design, development, implementation, evaluation model) in developing programs for the career fair program. Throughout the entire process, the student support center and student council actively collaborated, striving to incorporate students' requests and opinions. They designed and developed a program for all stages of the career planning process. However, a new stage ("review & ref lection") was added to the existing 4-phase model, creating a transformed framework where this stage interacts with the original 4 phases. Each stage involved portfolios, career aptitude tests, career-related lectures, posters with introductory information about majors, and booths for each major. The revised career fair attracted double the expected participants (N=589). The program evaluation survey showed overall positive responses (N=135). Additionally, some factors in the Specialty Indecision Scale showed significant differences between before and after the career fair. The success of the newly developed career fair at Chungnam National University College of Medicine can be attributed to its systematic framework and the active involvement of students throughout the process. However, for aspects with long-term implications, such as "understand yourself " and "choose your specialty," there may be a need for supplementary programs.

Chonnam National University Medical School has designed and implemented two career planning programs: a three-phase curriculum-based program and a longitudinal non-curricular program over the course of 6 academic years. The three phases of the curriculum-based career planning program are self-assessment, career exploration, and field experience. The non-curricular career counseling program operates through a faculty advisor system, with each faculty member guiding a group of students from each academic year, and students in each year forming a mentor-mentee relationship. The non-curricular career exploration program consists of a student research support program, an international practice program in basic and clinical medicine, and a specialty exploration fair. A survey conducted among 38 graduates (54.3%) working as interns at Chonnam National University Hospital revealed that graduates preferred autonomous elective subjects within the curriculum-based program. They also responded positively to the faculty advisor system, through which they maintained close relationships. A focus group interview with three interns indicated that subjects providing direct experience in fields of interest and courses that students could choose freely were helpful in career decisions. Through follow-up research, it is necessary to design and operate a systematic career planning program based on an analysis of the needs of graduates taking part in a residency training program after selecting a medical specialty.

The ultimate goal of career guidance is to help medical students develop a career plan that matches their personal characteristics, allows them to train in their desired subspecialty, and helps them to adapt well to medical practice after graduation. Gachon Medical School has designed a longitudinal career guidance program called GLORI (Gachon Longitudinal Orientation and Career Development), which is based on the outcome of each phase. The program consists of regular courses and portfolio-based career guidance from a mentor professor. In phase 2 (basic medical science), the "Career Seminar" course was developed. This course focuses on self-understanding through a psychological inventory, exploration of postgraduate career paths, and interviews with professors in specialties of interest. In phase 3 (the integration of basic and clinical science), the "Exploring Nonclinical Career Options" course was introduced. This course presents perspectives from doctors who have followed various pioneering career trajectories, including biomedical engineering, medical journalism, writing, public health, health care administration, the pharmaceutical and medical device industries, and other areas. All teaching methods were designed to encourage student participation. The assessment methods are assignment-based, including self-reflective reports and presentations. In addition, a portfolio-based career guidance program is implemented in phases 3 and 4 (clinical clerkship). It is expected that this case study will serve as a practical example for developing comprehensive career guidance programs for medical schools.

The career choices of medical students are significant for both individual students and society, which relies on a robust public healthcare system. Medical schools should provide a conducive environment and diverse information to enable students to make mature career decisions. Yonsei University College of Medicine conducts extracurricular programs for students' career development, including the Career Choice Expo, Career Path Survey, Special Lecture on Career Development, and a Visible Radio Show focused on career counseling. Additionally, the intracurricular activities offered by the college include career advising to students through faculty advisors in learning communities based on students' reflective writing about career-related activities. Medical students, in the process of forming their career decisions, compare what they have learned in the medical school curriculum with information acquired through extracurricular activities, taking into consideration their individual characteristics. Through longitudinal discussions with faculty advisors in learning communities, medical students not only gain recognition for the validity of their exploratory activities but also develop a sense of self-efficacy in making career decisions. The career education program at Yonsei University College of Medicine aligns with recent perspectives emphasizing the integration of career counseling for medical students into the curriculum in order to increase effectiveness.

Amid the increasing interest in medical humanities education, this study developed a medical humanities course that utilized design thinking to foster creative thinking, problem-solving, and collaboration skills that pre-medical students should possess. The course's efficacy was assessed by evaluating improvements in core design thinking skills. The present study was conducted among 83 first-year medical students after planning and implementing a design thinking course. The reflection journals written by students along the course of the class were examined using the template analysis technique to evaluate the effectiveness of the class. The study's primary findings showed the successful development of step-by-step medical humanities education content utilizing design thinking and its practical implementation in a class. Moreover, the course improved students' core design thinking skills effectively, and in a balanced way. These results illustrate the effective application of design thinking in medical school through a medical humanities course. These findings indicate that a medical humanities course can help medical students showcase their abilities to collaborate and solve problems in the real world. This paper suggests the need for further research to develop a curriculum that integrates design thinking and investigate the relationship between medical students' core competencies and design thinking-based courses.

This study investigates whether personality characteristics and learning behaviors can predict medical students' academic achievement in Korea, specifically in terms of successfully completing medical school without delays or achieving a high grade point average (GPA) in their final year. In May 2018, 316 medical students took the Multi-Dimensional Learning Strategy Test, 2nd edition, which provided data on their personality and learning behavioral characteristics. Their final year's GPA and any delays in completing medical school were ascertained by reviewing all electronic academic records of each semester they had been enrolled. The combination of personality and learning behavioral characteristics was significantly associated with completing medical school without delays, even after adjusting for sex and admission path. A multiple logistic regression analysis showed that the adjusted odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals for completing medical school without delays were 1.52 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.83-2.78) and 3.64 (95% CI, 1.70-7.82) for "others" and "both high" categories, respectively, when compared with the "both low" category. For 235 students who completed medical school without delays, their learning behavioral characteristics (scores) were significantly associated with their final year's GPA even after adjusting for sex, admission path, and personality characteristics (scores) as determined by the multiple linear regression analysis. This study suggests that individual personality and learning behavior characteristics are predictors of medical students' academic achievement. Therefore, interventions such as personalized counseling programs should be provided in consideration of such student characteristics.