Teamwork Development in a Medical College’s Global Medicine Program: A Qualitative Study of Graduate Students

This qualitative study examined the teamwork development process among graduate students participating in the International Development Cooperation Expert Training Program at Seoul National University’s Department of Human Systems Medicine. The three-semester program comprised theoretical coursework, mixed methods research, and a field practicum in Cambodia. The curriculum was deliberately structured with progressively increasing levels of difficulty across semesters. Ten participants, including a professor, a teaching assistant, and graduate students from various disciplines, were recruited. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed using thematic analysis. The teamwork development process emerged as a five-phase sequence: team building, adjustment, rule setting, implementation, and adaptation. The initial phase involved overcoming unfamiliarity through task-oriented collaboration. The adjustment phase centered on negotiating role conf licts and task-related conf licts. During the rule setting phase, psychological safety was crucial, enabling members to acknowledge knowledge gaps without fear of judgment. This phase also included the establishment of communication norms and stabilization of leadership. Implementation was marked by efficient role allocation based on expertise and creative problem-solving. In the adaptation phase, teams adjusted rapidly to field conditions, embraced f lexible role execution, and strengthened trust through active knowledge exchange. The findings highlight that trust-based psychological safety, clear role definition, conflict mediation, autonomous collaboration, and adaptability are central to effective teamwork in medical education. The study underscores the need for structured, process-oriented approaches in teamwork education for global medical contexts that cultivate psychological safety, incorporate gradually increasing difficulty, and require sufficient time investment.