Exploration and Application of the Employment-Education Model in Medical Students’ Career Planning and Employment Guidance Courses ()
1. Introduction
Employment is the biggest livelihood issue, and achieving more sufficient and higher-quality employment is an important foundation for promoting common prosperity of all people. High-quality employment of medical students has important significance for the national health and medical undertakings. Therefore, medical universities need to explore the integration of the concept of “cultivate moral character while educating people” into employment guidance courses in order to cultivate outstanding “new medical talents” for the new era. The Guiding Opinions on Accelerating the Innovation and Development of Medical Education issued by The State Council (2020) proposes to strengthen the education of medical students in “Dao-Shu, renart, scholarship, technology, and art” with new connotations. Recent researches of employment guidance courses have reflected a series of problems such as being result-oriented with the focus on explicit results, neglecting the implicit cultivation of employment and education (Zhang, 2023) , emphasizing individual development in stages while ignoring comprehensive development throughout life, and prioritizing the granting of methodological skills over vocational career education based on connotation (Sun, 2020) . Zhou (2022) proposed that experiential teaching, group exercises, simulated recruitment fairs, and other methods should be adopted. The focus should be on students’ internal needs and personalized development, and comprehensive qualities should be strengthened through this type of education. Based on the current problems of employment guidance courses in universities, this article proposes a “Five-Dimension and Five-Path” employment-education model. This model aims to improve the professional ethics of medical students, guide them to establish correct vocational values, and cultivate new era professionals with emotional intelligence, a sense of responsibility, and innovative capabilities, providing strong talent and intellectual support for the realization of common prosperity. Overall, the “Five-Dimension and Five-Path” employment-education model provides a fresh and innovative approach to address current problems with employment guidance courses for medical students in universities. By incorporating the concept of “cultivate moral character while educating people” and emphasizing comprehensive development throughout life, this model cultivates outstanding “new medical talents” who possess not only methodological skills but also strong personal qualities and values. In this way, this model represents a significant step forward in promoting common prosperity through high-quality employment of medical students.
2. The Development and Significance of the “Five-Dimension and Five-Path” Employment-Education Model
General Secretary Xi Jinping has repeatedly emphasized the need to integrate the goal of cultivating moral character with education at all levels (Li, 2022) . Universities should not only do a good job in helping graduates find employment, but also promote the cultivation of moral character. In other words, “employment-education” should be an important guiding principle for career planning and employment guidance courses. Under this background, this article proposes the “Five-Dimension and Five-Path” employment-education model as part of the new development of medical education.
The latest guidance from the Ministry of Education pointed out that medical universities should carry out “Five-Dimension” medical education to cultivate medical students as guardians of people’s health with high medical ethics and superb medical skills. Wenzhou medical university has summarized the “Five-Path” that are applicable in medical student career planning through its own practice (He et al., 2022) . Based on the current difficulties faced by medical students in finding employment, such as labor shortages, employment challenges, mismatched job demands, lack of long-term planning, etc. (Ma, 2014) . This model uses multiple teaching methods such as heuristic, immersive, interactive, and experiential learning. It constructs an implicit employment-education teaching model that integrates five dimensions of “Dao-Shu, renart, scholarship, technology, and art” with five paths of “career development, career planning, academic design, job guidance, and entrepreneurship mentoring”.
The “Five-Dimension and Five-Path” employment-education model not only improves medical students’ career planning and job-seeking capabilities but also encourages them to combine their personal value with social value, ideals with national needs and social progress. This model is conducive to cultivating a noble professional values and ethics, and developing medical students who possess “Dao-Shu, renart, scholarship, technology, and art”, and will be double-decked individual in morality and talent in the new era.
3. The Practical Application of the “Five-Dimension and Five-Path” Employment Education Model among Medical Students
In terms of career planning and job guidance education, there is a need to strengthen the new connotation education of the five dimensions and paths of saving lives, showing compassion, having solid knowledge, possessing strong skills, and using scientific methods in order to enhance the design of career content that includes “career development, career planning, academic design, job guidance, and entrepreneurship coaching”.
3.1. Ethical Principle
“The Dao-Shu of saving lives and supporting the injured” is the source of students’ career development. Medical students lay the foundation for their aspirations and career development by deeply understanding the spirit and culture of saving lives and healing the wounded, and adhering to ethical principles that guide their actions and decisions, including beneficence, non-maleficence, autonomy, justice, and confidentiality. Therefore, it provides the first lesson in the career planning of medical students. In first-year career education, the “walking classroom” mode is adopted to allow medical students to enter the human body science museum and integrate life and cultural ritual education into the classroom (Wu, 2022) . Through online video teaching and offline case discussions, the essence of saving lives through medical treatment is introduced into the classroom, allowing students to have a sense of professional identification, vocational values, and directional goals, enabling them to find their “art of the Dao”. Taking practical steps, students can gain a deep understanding of the connotation of ethical principles and clarify their aspirations and responsibilities.
3.2. The Way of Benevolence
The way of benevolence, which is imbued with love, is the core to achieving career planning. As an outstanding medical student in career planning, not only do they need to have a solid professional knowledge but also broad cultural literacy and emotional qualities. The quality of compassion helps medical students develop a broader perspective and more delicate emotional sensitivity. In the chapter on vocational values, we introduce employment cases rooted in grassroots work in western China, using exemplary guidance to foster patriotism and encourage students to participate in medical charity public welfare work, silently moving towards better things. At the same time, we embed the “Great Dedication of the Doctor Debate”, patiently guiding and leading values. Through case studies, public service practices and interactive discussions, we guide students to understand their own compassionate qualities, doing well in career planning with patriotic feelings (Ouyang, 2020) .
3.3. Academic Knowledge
Solid academic knowledge is the foundation of stable academic design. In academic design, students need to master solid subject knowledge and possess good academic literacy and innovation ability. Only in this way can the stability and reliability of academic design be ensured and a path be paved for future career development. Multiple forms are adopted in teaching, such as jointly cultivating students by hospitals and schools, inviting famous teachers to guide, leveraging the power of role models, and mutual assistance among peers. Through immersive dialogue and heuristic thinking, academic mentors can be found.
3.4. Professional Skills
Strong technical skills are essential for job guidance. Not only do professional skills need to be strong, but job skills also need to be up to par. Through strengthening technical practice and improving vocational skills, we can be unbeatable in the fierce job market and achieve career development goals (Yan, 2022) . In the job exploration section, we use experiential education at the employment base to allow students to perceive their future careers. For example, students can immerse themselves in observing and simulating real-life professional environments, and learn related job skills. They can also analyze real-life cases to understand different occupational roles and how to handle various challenges. In addition, students can participate in role-playing activities to simulate and understand specific occupational responsibilities and work procedures. In the job-seeking ability section, corporate employment mentors provide guidance on resumes, interviews, etiquette, and allow students to participate in practical recruitment activities to improve their job skills.
3.5. Artistic Expression
The art of mastering scientific communication methods and team collaboration is the essence of entrepreneurship coaching. In entrepreneurship coaching, in addition to focusing on the entrepreneur’s innovative ideas and business plans, it is also necessary to pay attention to communication methods and team collaboration (Kan, 2011) . By using occupational role-playing, analyzing entrepreneurial cases, and sharing practical competition events, students can master a scientific method of art in entrepreneurship coaching through context creation, idea collision, and practical testing, establishing a relationship that is both emotional and meaningful, achieving powerful results.
4. Conclusion
The “Five-Dimension and Five-Path” employment-education model was proposed in the implementation of teaching reforms regarding new requirements for medical talent cultivation, new ideas on curriculum-based ideology and politics, and new connotations in employment-education. It is of great significance in helping medical students achieve high-quality employment and cultivating new-generation talents who will undertake the great mission of national rejuvenation in the new era. However, there are still some problems with this model, such as the inability to carry out key stages due to issues such as long-term internships for interns and limitations in time and space for employment guidance, which need to be further explored in teaching practice.
Acknowledgements
This paper is supported by Zhejiang Education Science Planning 2023 Common Prosperity Special Project (Project No: 2023GF053).