- Title
- Selecting medical students: in reply (letter)
- Creator
- Powis, David A.
- Relation
- Medical Journal of Australia Vol. 189, Issue 4
- Relation
- http://www.mja.com.au/public/issues/189_04_180808/letters_180708_fm-5.html
- Publisher
- Australasian Medical Publishing Company
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2008
- Description
- I am sorry Arnold considers that, in the context of selecting medical students based on their suitability to be a doctor, interpersonal relationship skills are qualities necessary only for gemeral practitioners and psychiatrists. He is presumably unaware that the most frequent complaints made by patients about doctors of all kinds concern the very absence of such skills. I agree with his statement that medicine is a broad church, with many professional pathways to suit individual preferences and skills, but that doesn’t mean that anybody is suitable to fill the positions, or indeed fit to be any sort of doctor. In any country, medical boards and medical indemnity insurers could give many examples of inadequate practitioners. We should remember that all of these practitioners were admitted to medical school, passed their exams and graduated as fit to practise medicine. If there is any chance of identifying such individuals before they start their medical training, then it would be unethical not to do so. This means we have to select students based on more than their academic achievements at school, and a suitably structured interview has been shown to be a reasonably effective tool in this context.
- Subject
- medical students; selection process; medical education; academic performance; personal qualities
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/43568
- Identifier
- uon:5654
- Identifier
- ISSN:0025-729X
- Language
- eng
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