Communication is key to the future of healthcare
With numerous studies pointing out the high rate of medical errors (and the resulting law suits) due to miscommunications among medical staff, in addition to increasing consumerism in the healthcare sector and reimbursement models tied to patient satisfaction, the importance of having doctors who have solid communication skills has come sharply into focus.
In response, more and more medical schools are including social skills interviews with candidates in their admissions process. But not everyone in the healthcare community is sold on the idea.
Supporters of these types of admissions interviews say they are needed because it is imperative that doctors can communicate effectively with their patients and other members of the medical team.
Schools are always looking for ways to admit the best of the best said John Prescott, MD, chief academic officer, Association of American Medical Colleges. Increasingly, that means looking not just at test scores.
“The question is, are we selecting the right ones who can best meet the needs of the future challenges that we have in a very complicated healthcare system of the future,” he said. “We have patients who expect, and frankly, demand, doctors who can communicate well with them. ... We need to be able to have those who can … work well with others in team, who can appreciate their own limitations and, when it’s most appropriate, to call in colleagues or others to help with the care of patients or the care of communities.”
J. Deane Waldman, MD, professor, pediatrics, pathology and decision science, University of New Mexico and author of “Uproot U.S. Healthcare,” couldn’t agree more that communication skills are essential for doctors, but he doesn’t think testing prospective candidates’ social skills in the admissions process is the way to go.
“There are a number of areas in medicine where ‘people skills’ are much less important than analytic skills, memory, compulsiveness and attention to detail,” he said. “If ‘people skills’ are added to the requirements list, we could lose valuable people.” Instead, he suggests, admit those with proven academic skills and then coach them on people skills once in school. “Communication is a vital issue that is almost invariably ignored by med schools, to everyone’s detriment,” he said.
Being able to select medical students who have both academic skills and social skills shouldn’t be a problem because the pool of students competing to get into medical schools is so rich, said Lanny Copeland, chief medical officer, LifePoint Hospitals, and former president, American Academy of Family Physicians.
“If two candidates have the same qualifications but one exhibits much better communication skills, the selection process would be made easier,” he said.
“It’s definitely not an either or proposition,” agreed Prescott. That’s why an admissions process that recognizes both personal qualities and academic achievement is so important. “We’re looking for individuals who certainly understand the science of medicine, but also the art of healing.”
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