In March 2026, 25 year-5 students from the School of Traditional Chinese Medicine (STCM), Xiamen University Malaysia (XMUM), completed their clinical internship at the Yunnan Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine. 

As part of their final-year internship, the students were arranged to undertake a 28-week placement in Yunnan (25 August 2025 - 6 March 2026) for intensive TCM training, following a 20-week internship in Western Medicine in Xiamen, China (7 April 2025 - 22 August 2025). During their time in Yunnan, students rotated through several departments, including Internal Medicine, Surgery, Gynecology, Pediatrics, Acupuncture-Moxibustion and Tuina, as well as the Characteristic TCM Nursing Clinic.

This internship was based on the collaboration between Xiamen University Malaysia and the Yunnan Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine. As a top-tier Grade A tertiary hospital in China, the hospital receives nearly 1.79 million outpatient and emergency visits annually. Its busy clinical environment exposed students to a wide spectrum of conditions, from common illnesses to complex cases, which greatly broadened their clinical perspectives.

A key feature of the internship was the mentorship system, where each student attended outpatient clinics with experienced physicians twice a week. They were also introduced to the hospital’s collection of more than eighty internal herbal preparations, including Zilian Ointment and Lingzhi Kidney-tonifying Pills. In addition, they were given the chance to observe the application of these preparations and to practice characteristic TCM therapies such as cupping, scraping, Du-moxibustion, and navel moxibustion under professional guidance.

Loh Joe Yi, one of the TCM students, shared her experience: "The six-month internship under Associate Professor Liao Chengcheng at the Dermatology Department gave me a firsthand understanding of TCM diagnosis. Clinical practice is not the mechanical application of theory, but the ability to understand the whole body from small signs. My path forward is to deepen my expertise, broaden my clinical insight, and remain humble in the face of 'two thousand diseases'."

Another student, Chew Jia En, said: "A unique highlight of this experience was my exposure to ethnic minority therapies, especially the Yi ethnic medicinal wine fire therapy, which involves applying herbal-infused medicinal wine to specific areas of the body, followed by controlled ignition to generate therapeutic heat. This method is believed to promote blood circulation, dispel cold and dampness, and relieve pain, demonstrating both distinctive cultural characteristics and practical therapeutic value."

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Group photo of students with Prof. Wang Jian and Sun Yuhuan, coordinators of their internship

(Contributed by Ching Yusheng)