Materia Medica Malaysiana

Exposing aspiring doctors to the gore

TANJUNG MALIM: Applicants for medical courses in local universities will be first taken around hospitals to allow them to look at the “gore” doctors have to see daily before their applications are approved.
Higher Education Minister Datuk Dr Shafie Mohd Salleh said the move was to ensure that applicants would know what they were in for and not drop out halfway.
He said not all brilliant students were “doctor material.”
“Some straight-A students may be better off being engineers and not doctors,” he said yesterday after Sultan of Perak Sultan Azlan Shah launched Politeknik Tanjong Malim, which was subsequently renamed Politeknik Sultan Azlan Shah.
He said there were applicants who were forced to take up medicine by their parents despite it not being their preference.
In such cases, he said, the candidate would drop out due to a lack of interest. If they did not, they would not be good doctors, he added.
He said applicants would be taken to, among others, emergency rooms, clinics and wards.
“If the applicants are found to be unsuitable for medicine, they will be allowed to change their course preference after visiting the hospitals,” he said.
He noted that doctors were required to have good interpersonal and communication skills, which were vital in helping the patients.
He added that Health Ministry officials would interview the applicants to find out why they wanted to be doctors.
Dr Shafie said there were plans to get medical course applicants to undergo a special aptitude test before their applications were finalised.
He said the Government had allocated 200 more medical seats in local universities this year to ensure that none of the top students were left out, like what had happened to 128 students last year.
Last year, only 779 of the 907 applicants were successful.