Med Schools Starting to Test for People Skills

I've heard this many times about various docs: "He's gruff, but he knows what he's talking about."

Substitute "she" and it's the same.

We usually opt for knowledge over friendliness, but some medical schools are starting to try for both. Virginia Tech Carilion, a new med school, has started testing people skills by putting candidates through nine mini interviews in which they have two minutes to review a case study and eight minutes to respond before moving to the next room.

Gardiner Harris wrote about the "equivalent of speed-dating" for The New York Times:

"At Virginia Tech Carilion, the nation's newest medical school, administrators decided against relying solely on grades, test scores and hour-long interviews to determine who got in. Instead, the school invited candidates to the admissions equivalent of speed-dating: nine brief interviews that forced candidates to show they had the social skills to navigate a health care system in which good communication has become critical.

"The new process has enormous consequences not only for the lives of the applicants but, its backers hope, also for the entire health care system."

This is important news for those of you returning to school in the health care field. It pays to be knowledgeable and friendly.