This article is published with the permission of Dr. Wujian Ke. Many people are interested in how top foreign medical schools train their clinicians, and I was fortunate enough to receive clinical skills training at the University of Washington, so I would like to briefly introduce the school’s training methods and philosophy to you. The University of Washington is known worldwide for its medicine, and its clinical medicine program is ranked first in the nation. The school is ranked third in the world for all medical specialties combined. The faculty includes 252 U.S. academicians, 167 members of the American Council on Science, and 12 Nobel Prize winners. The statue of George Washington, the father of the United States, is on the campus of the University of Washington School of Medicine. When it comes to clinical practice courses, the number of students is even smaller, usually ranging from 2-5, and sometimes even 1-to-1 (for example, in the clinical diagnostic course I attended, one clinical instructor and two modeling instructors worked together on three of our students). The advantage of small class size is that the teacher can identify each student’s problems and deficiencies in a timely manner, while the biggest disadvantage is that it is expensive, with the average cost of 1 training session ranging up to $100-$150. The medical school invites experts in different fields of medicine from around the world to give weekly lectures to broaden students’ horizons and keep them up to date with the latest medical developments. The teaching hospital organizes clinical history discussions during short lunch periods, where students receive a free lunch (often pizza or sandwiches) and learn about clinical diagnostic thinking. The campus has a relaxed and lively atmosphere where students can listen to the lectures over coffee and snacks (as long as they don’t make any noise) and can interrupt at any time if they are not sure about anything. The teachers also encourage students to think and ask questions about the course content in order to allow them to participate more actively in the learning process. I was most impressed by the critical thinking course offered by the school. Before each class, the teacher would provide students with medical research articles published in top journals (e.g. Nature, Science, etc.), and the class would not only let students study the merits of the articles, but also encourage them to identify the shortcomings of the articles and propose changes on their own. The focus of this learning model is to cultivate the spirit of not blindly worshiping authority. The Suzzallo Library on campus is one of my favorite places to study. In contrast to the relaxed and active lecture style, the school is known for its strict examination style. Because the school has a very dominant philosophy of respect for life, it is very tough on all exams that involve life-related courses. Even the written exams for animal experiments, like the one I took, required 100% correct answers to pass, otherwise they needed to be retaken. The written exams were even more daunting than the practical exams. For example, I was given a left nephrectomy as part of my surgical operation exam, and five teachers evaluated it at the same time (one teacher evaluated the operation, one teacher evaluated the use of surgical instruments, one teacher evaluated the administration of anesthesia, and two teachers were on hand for a comprehensive evaluation). The teacher assesses the students’ knowledge through exams, and the students assess the teacher’s teaching process at the end of the semester. This two-way evaluation mode makes the teachers more active and unreserved in instructing students in class, and the strict assessment system makes students not dare to relax and study more seriously. I think this is probably one of the reasons why the school’s clinical medicine ranking has been ranked first in the nation for a long time. The above is generalist training, but to become a specialist requires more training, practice and testing. Individual scores stored in the school’s database (100% correct to pass the exam)