Medicine as a Career - Page 9
professional activities.
5. Ability to tolerate uncertainty and
frustration. The practice of medicine is based
on the fact that every patient is unique, that
frequently one must intervene thera-
peutically before all the facts are available,
and that even after securing all rele-
vant data it may be necessary to select from
several courses of action that are
quite different and possibly contradictory. Thus
you must have a personality that
enables you to function in an atmosphere of
ambiguity where clear-cut and pre-
cisely defined treatment modalities are lacking.
Moreover, since the response to
even the most appropriate therapeutic regime
may prove disappointing, you also
must be able to withstand the frustrations of
clinical failure in spite of excellent
medical treatment.
6. Well-organized work habits. It is crucial to
professional success that prospective
medical students maximize their expenditure of
time and effort. This will ensure
that opportunities will not be lost and
information will not go to waste.
7. Capacity for self-education. Willingness to
learn a great deal about a topic with-
out the prospect of gaining external reward for
doing so is essential. The reason
is that much of what will be learned in medical
school will either be forgotten
and/or become obsolete. Inherent in
self-education is the necessity to hone one's
critical faculties. This will permit clear
thinking and independent formulation of
judgments. Self-education also includes an
ability to assimilate and sustain by
continual learning a large knowledge base, as
well as the ability to define and
solve problems by interpreting data, reasoning
critically, and applying learned
information.
8. Social awareness. A gradual change is taking
place in health care delivery, in
which the focus is not exclusively on the
individual patient out of the context of
the many psychological and social factors that
affect health and produce illness.
It is thus incumbent to have an awareness of
the current climate relative to the
sociomedical issues involved in providing
health care to the varying population
groups.
9. Achievement. Evidence of some special
achievement, in any one of a variety of
fields, is an asset for a prospective medical
school applicant. Thus an applicant
may have climbed a well-known mountain,
organized a band, or learned how to
captain a small fishing boat. Achievements that
demonstrate initiative, leader-
ship potential, and/or the ability to establish
satisfactory interpersonal relation-
ships are indicative of the potential for
achievement in the challenging field of
medicine.
10. Creativity. The ability to marshall one's
intellectual resources to meet chal-
lenges is an especially valuable asset. This
capability for creativity may be
reflected in self-confidence and by an ability
to detect and define problems, to
think originally, to question established
scientific dogmas, and to demonstrate
intellectual courage.
The four years of high school and first three
years of college provide the opportu-
nity to determine to what extent you possess
these basic attributes. The grades you
receive, especially in your science courses,
will provide a basis for judging your intel-
lectual ability. Your response to various
science courses, as well as other contacts with
experimentation and scientific inquiry in class
or possibly in summer work, will enable
you to evaluate your natural response to this
area of studies. Your ability to get along
with your fellow students and friends should
provide a basis for judging your personal-
ity. Finally, how you stand up to the demands
of your school work and personal prob-
lems will provide some basis for evaluating
your inner tenacity and determination.
Objective self-analysis at the end of high
school and at the end of each college year
will help to ensure that your choice of a
medical career is realistic and will provide a
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