Future Doctors or Social Butterflies?

Surprisingly, same thing! Doctors are now being required to become social butterflies if they want to be successful in their field. Although a great GPA, amazing MCAT scores, and impressive resume are enough to get medical school's attention, is it enough to get these ambitious students INTO medical school? Although, these soon- to- be- doctors seem great on paper, many medical schools are starting to take into great consideration their social skills. 

In today's medical field, the way doctors demean, bully, and push around nurses is getting out of control. Shockingly enough, patients aren't excluded from this type of treatment either. Many doctors ignore patients’ requests, believing that they know what is best for their patients based on the knowledge and extraneous education on health and illnesses. This manner of behavior that doctors convey is causing a lot of problems for hospitals. Not only is this type of behavior embarrassing, but it also tarnishes a hospitals reputation. If patients are treated in a way that makes them feel insignificant because a doctor ignores their wishes, the less likely that these patients will find themselves returning. This domino affect leads to hospitals losing money.  Subsequently, doctors’ behavior is becoming frightenly obvious and has created much tension between the relationships within the walls of hospitals, so much so that medical schools themselves are concerned about getting a handle on this situation.

According to the Global Edition of the New York Times, Gardiner Harris explains in 'Would-be Doctors Face New Hurdle: Test of their Social Skills', that medical schools are now testing their medical school applicants on their social skills. How?

Applicants will have to take a test during their interview. This test is called the 'Multiple Mini-Interview' or M.M.I test's applicants social skills so that medical schools can weed out those that have not developed appropriate communication/ social skills or the ones they might have to train.

The social skills that they look for is if he/or she listens carefully to their patient and if they ask for more information about their patients request. Mostly, the interviewer's role in this process is to pay close attention to the applicant's reaction to certain situations and how he/she handles them because after all, during this exercise there is no right or wrong answer.

Good social skills, leadership skills, communication, and teamwork are necessary to navigate a good health care system. So, future doctors of America, be aware that a good doctor should be leaders that are be able to master these skills in order to serve their patients and treat them as well as possible. Becoming a doctor is a privilege, you are forever seen as a healer symbolizing hope as you protect your patients from disease, illnesses, and pain.