2.5. Participants’ Characteristics
In Japan, medical students are required to have six years of education. After graduation, medical students are allowed to engage in medical care simply by passing the national examination for medical practitioners. The medical abilities of first-year resident physicians therefore do not differ substantially from those of medical students. A two-year initial training period is required after obtaining a medical license, and the “super-rotation system” has been adopted, in which first-year resident physicians rotate through selected departments, with internal medicine, emergency medicine, and community medicine as compulsory. The purpose of this system is to train physicians to have the necessary skills to practice a wide range of medical care, especially primary care, regardless of their future specialty. Training in outpatient care has become more and more important in the super-rotation system in recent years.Twenty first-year resident physicians were enrolled. Resident physicians were included in this study if they met at least one of the following inclusion criteria and had none of the exclusion criteria. The inclusion criteria were: first-year resident physicians who graduated from the university’s medical school in Japan; resident physicians who voluntarily applied to participate following the public announcement; and resident physicians who provided written, informed consent for participation in this study. The exclusion criteria were applicants considered ineligible by the researcher and participants who withdrew consent.