Medical training requires high standards
A Senior DoctorPublished: Jun 30, 2005 5:59 AM | Updated: Jan 29, 2008 10:21 AM
I write in response to the report MMC: Decision not racially motivated.
As a member of the medical profession, it is our duty to ensure that future doctors are competent and well-trained besides being able to fit into the Malaysian healthcare system.
As a citizen who will one day need the services of these future doctors, it is also in my (and your) interests that these doctors-to-be be well-trained. With that in mind, let us think logically on how we want our future doctors trained.
There are three basic prerequisites for a good doctor. Firstly, the candidate should be intellectually nimble enough to deal with the complexities of medical knowledge, skills, and competency. All countries take their medical students from the academic 'creme de la creme' of their youth.
Of course, intelligence alone does not make a good doctor, but without it, one can't even start. We generally consider those in the top 10 percent of academic top scorers to be suitable for a medical career. Australia, for example, takes from the top three percent.
Secondly, the potential doctor must be well-trained. This means good training facilities, good lecturers, and perhaps most importantly, good conscientious doctors who will act as good role models.
Finally, the doctor must have compassion, empathy and a genuine interest in his craft and patients. The last is the most difficult to quantify, and the most difficult aspect of the selection process.
Therefore, it was with great distress I read of the medical students selection process at Ukrainian medical schools. They blatantly fail in the first two aspects above, in that candidates who do not qualify are chosen. Intake into the 'pre-medical' programme is SPM-based and the requirements are low. The high number of students means that there is no way reasonable teaching standards can be maintained. They are nothing but money-making enterprises.
I sympathise with those who are already in medical programmes there, At least those who registered this year will still be recognised. But I have always advised those who asked me to be wary of medical training in Russia and Ukraine.
After having trained housemans from many different medical schools from around the world, I can say that standards wary widely. And it is obvious graduates from certain countries would have more problems.
Our local medical schools are not without problems. Whatever it is, it is in the interest of our nation, our citizenry and ourselves to ensure only the brightest, best trained and most empathic be our future doctors.
As a member of the medical profession, it is our duty to ensure that future doctors are competent and well-trained besides being able to fit into the Malaysian healthcare system.
As a citizen who will one day need the services of these future doctors, it is also in my (and your) interests that these doctors-to-be be well-trained. With that in mind, let us think logically on how we want our future doctors trained.
There are three basic prerequisites for a good doctor. Firstly, the candidate should be intellectually nimble enough to deal with the complexities of medical knowledge, skills, and competency. All countries take their medical students from the academic 'creme de la creme' of their youth.
Of course, intelligence alone does not make a good doctor, but without it, one can't even start. We generally consider those in the top 10 percent of academic top scorers to be suitable for a medical career. Australia, for example, takes from the top three percent.
Secondly, the potential doctor must be well-trained. This means good training facilities, good lecturers, and perhaps most importantly, good conscientious doctors who will act as good role models.
Finally, the doctor must have compassion, empathy and a genuine interest in his craft and patients. The last is the most difficult to quantify, and the most difficult aspect of the selection process.
Therefore, it was with great distress I read of the medical students selection process at Ukrainian medical schools. They blatantly fail in the first two aspects above, in that candidates who do not qualify are chosen. Intake into the 'pre-medical' programme is SPM-based and the requirements are low. The high number of students means that there is no way reasonable teaching standards can be maintained. They are nothing but money-making enterprises.
I sympathise with those who are already in medical programmes there, At least those who registered this year will still be recognised. But I have always advised those who asked me to be wary of medical training in Russia and Ukraine.
After having trained housemans from many different medical schools from around the world, I can say that standards wary widely. And it is obvious graduates from certain countries would have more problems.
Our local medical schools are not without problems. Whatever it is, it is in the interest of our nation, our citizenry and ourselves to ensure only the brightest, best trained and most empathic be our future doctors.
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