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The Making of a Subspecialty-Certified Psychiatrist in Taiwan

Winston W. Shen

TMU-Wan Fang Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan

Content: In Taiwan, undergraduate medical education needs a total of seven years. (Effective from
the 2014 entrance class or the 2020 grduating class, the total medical education year will be
shortened from 7 to 6 years.) Graduating from a high school, a medical student in Taiwan needs to
receive premedical education for 1 years, basic science education for 2 years, and hospital clerkship
practicum 2 years, and hospital internship 1 year. After receiving a one-year post graduation year at
an accredited hospital, a psychiatrist-to-be requires to receive a four-year psychiatry residency at an
approved psychiatry sub-specialty training program.

Psychiatry sub-specialty examination in Taiwan consists of both written and oral examinations.
The written examination is held once a year in March while the oral examination takes places twice a
years in April and in October. In oral examination, an eligible examinee needs to interview a
randomly assigned live patient for 40 minutes in front of three sit-in psychiatrist examiners. Ten
minutes later, she/he has another 40 minute interview with those three examiners for case
presentation as well as Q and A section. The passing rates of the first attempter for the written and
oral examination in Taiwan are about 95% and 40%-60%, respectively.