BMJ  2006;332:1156 (13 May), doi:10.1136/bmj.332.7550.1156-b

Letter

Selecting medical students

A struggler responds

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—As a teacher of medical students and residents for my whole career, I appreciate the study of Yates et al predicting who will struggle with medical training.1 However, has the end purpose of medical training been kept in mind? What about the qualities that we don't measure, such as empathy, honesty, and trustworthiness?

I have always told my more idealistic and emotionally available charges (who are usually the strugglers) that caring is necessary but that only caring informed by academic dedication is sufficient to be a good doctor. One quality without the other can lead to either a popular quack or a technician whom patients attend only because they have no choice. So I wonder about this study and what kind of doctors these strugglers will become if they make it.

My guess is that they will have just as good a chance at becoming good doctors as . . . [Full text of this article]

Stephen M Taylor, physician

University of North Texas Health Science Center, Fort Worth, TX 75032, USA dostephen@spindle.net


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Relevant Article

Predicting the "strugglers": a case-control study of students at Nottingham University Medical School
Janet Yates and David James
BMJ 2006 332: 1009-1013. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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