Top marks not enough for would-be med students

By REBECCA WALSH health reporter

Students wanting to get into Otago University's medical school will now be rated on more than their grades in the first entry exam designed to test qualities such as people skills and problem-solving.

More than 600 students will sit the exam today and 135 will be accepted into the medical school.

It is part of a move to ensure doctors not only have excellent medical knowledge but are good communicators who can relate to their patients.

The dean of Otago's Faculty of Medicine, Professor John Campbell, said the university wanted to provide a medical education that better met the needs of patients and healthcare providers.

Traditionally, the university had focused on a person's academic record. Those with top marks, especially in sciences and maths, were usually guaranteed a place.

But patients wanted doctors they could talk to, "not just someone with excellent medical knowledge", and qualities such as logical reasoning, problem-solving and people skills were not necessarily reflected in school marks, Dr Campbell said.

"We think it's fairer to rank them on as many of the attributes they are going to need rather than just one."

The Undergraduate Medical Admission Test has been used in Australia for 10-15 years and similar tests are used in North America. Auckland University medical school plans to introduce the test next year.

Dr Campbell said the 2 1/2-hour exam was divided into three sections: logical reasoning and problem-solving (which would also test students' English-language ability), interaction skills and non-verbal reasoning.

The last category, worth 10 per cent, tested skills, such as spatial awareness, which were important in disciplines like radiology.

The test score would comprise 34 per cent of the medical school's overall assessment of the student, while the student's grade point average for first-year health sciences would make up the rest.

It was expected that an interview or oral assessment would be introduced in 2005 to test skills such as a student's reasoning ability, motivation and perseverance.

Medical Association chairwoman Dr Tricia Briscoe said the organisation supported a method of identifying skills other than academic ability, but it needed to be followed up with research to confirm the test identified people who coped well with a doctor's challenges.

The president of the Medical Students Association, Brandon Adams, believed the test would create the opportunity for an increasingly diverse range of people to enter medical school without compromising academic standards.

Dr Campbell said the Umat test was part of planned curriculum changes to expand the focus on academic knowledge to training people for a profession.

A broader range of topics - including practical standards and ethics, bio-ethics, rural medicine, communication skills and dealing with death and dying - were planned, he said.

The university had appointed a new chair in palliative care and submitted a proposal to the Government for funding a 12-week course to give students more experience in rural medicine.