Do different curriculum aligned selection procedures admit students with different personality profiles to medical school?

Marieke De Visser,Janke Cohen-Schotanus,Roland Laan,Cornelia Fluit

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0209312

Abstract

BackgroundMedical schools aim to contribute to a pool of doctors who are ready for a future practice that will be ever-changing requiring collaboration skills and lifelong learning. They adapt their curricula and selection procedures to fulfil this responsibility. This study aims to determine whether two different selection procedures in one medical school, both matching the key characteristics of the subsequent curricula (one traditional, knowledge-based, and one recently designed for self directed learning and focusing on practice), select students with different personality traits as a side-effect. This perspective was chosen as personality has been related to the CanMeds competencies, innovation capacities, medical school performance and medical professional success.MethodsA total of 621 students admitted through the new or the traditional selection procedure were invited to complete a Big Five Inventory questionnaire at the start of their Bachelor’s programme. Using ANCOVA, we compared Big Five traits of students admitted through the new selection procedure (n = 196) and the traditional selection procedure (n = 425).ResultsThe group of students admitted through the procedure matching the newly designed curriculum had a lower mean score on neuroticism (p < .01) and higher mean scores on conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and openness (p < .001) than the other group.ConclusionsThe findings of the current study indicate that the medical school population is influenced in terms of personality traits as a side-effect of a changing selection procedure. We recommend studying this mechanism and its implications further and using it more consciously in selection procedure design.

Highlights

Medical schools are the first stage of medical education and, they have the responsibility to deliver physicians who have the abilities to meet the healthcare needs of the people they serve
The group of students admitted through the procedure matching the newly designed curriculum had a lower mean score on neuroticism (p < .01) and higher mean scores on conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and openness (p < .001) than the other group
The findings of the current study indicate that the medical school population is influenced in terms of personality traits as a side-effect of a changing selection procedure

Summary

Introduction

Medical schools are the first stage of medical education and, they have the responsibility to deliver physicians who have the abilities to meet the healthcare needs of the people they serve. Medical schools aim to contribute to a pool of doctors who are ready for a future practice that will be ever-changing requiring collaboration skills and lifelong learning They adapt their curricula and selection procedures to fulfil this responsibility. This study aims to determine whether two different selection procedures in one medical school, both matching the key characteristics of the subsequent curricula (one traditional, knowledge-based, and one recently designed for self directed learning and focusing on practice), select students with different personality traits as a side-effect. This perspective was chosen as personality has been related to the CanMeds competencies, innovation capacities, medical school performance and medical professional success

Objectives

Results

Conclusion