The desirable qualities of future doctors – A study of medical student perceptions

Figures & data

Table

Practice points

There is limited consensus regarding the most important personal qualities of medical graduates. One group of medical students regard empathy, motivation to be a doctor, good verbal communication, being ethically sound and honesty as the most important qualities. The ratings attached to these qualities vary according to students’ key characteristics. Future research defining the most important qualities should include a range of stakeholders.

Table 1.  Respondents' characteristics

Characteristic	n (%)
Age
18–20	119 (75)
21–25	22 (14)
26–30	8 (5)
31+	9 (6)
Gender
Male	75 (47)
Female	83 (53)
University of study
University of Newcastle	107 (68)
University of New England	51 (32)
Type of medical place
Commonwealth supported place	107 (68)
Bonded medical place	25 (16)
Medical rural-bonded scholarship	7 (4)
International	18 (11)
Previous tertiary studies
None	86 (55)
Completed partial degree	51 (32)
Completed full degree	19 (12)
Speaks language other than English at home
Yes	30 (19)
No	126 (79.7)

Table 2.  Ratings and endorsement of desirable qualities

Rank according to mean	Quality^a	Mean rating	Frequency of endorsement^b (%)
1	Empathy	4.68	154 (97.5)
2	Motivation to be a doctor	4.58	156 (98.7)
3	Good verbal communication	4.58	147 (93)
4	Ethically sound	4.52	144 (91.1)
5	Honesty	4.48	140 (88.6)
6	Ability to work in a team	4.47	140 (88.6)
7	Perseverance	4.46	148 (93.7)
8	Composure under pressure	4.46	150 (94.9)
9	Emotionally mature/Stable	4.40	145 (91.8)
10	Supportiveness to others	4.40	140 (88.6)
11	Critical thinking	4.38	150 (94.9)
12	Comfort in dealing with people	4.35	137 (86.7)
13	Thoroughness	4.32	139 (88)
14	Adaptability	4.30	140 (88.6)
15	Ability to simplify and explain complex concepts	4.29	135 (85.4)
16	Cultural sensitivity	4.23	129 (81.6)
17	Decisiveness	4.23	135 (85.4)
18	Ability to work and think independently	4.19	128 (81.0)
19	Intelligence	4.09	129 (81.6)
20	Self confidence	4.06	130 (82.2)
21	Organisational skills	4.02	122 (77.2)
22	Academic ability	3.94	115 (72.8)
23	Tolerance of ambiguity	3.89	110 (69.6)
24	Altruism	3.88	102 (64.6)
25	Personal insight	3.83	106 (67.1)
26	Good level of personal health	3.80	107 (67.7)
27	Good leadership abilities	3.78	99 (62.7)
28	Devoted to work	3.69	102 (64.6)
29	Likeable personality	3.66	86 (54.4)
30	Ambitious	3.32	64 (40.5)
31	Does not take time-off work	2.31	12 (7.6)

Notes: ^aQualities highlighted were being explicitly measured in the 2010 JMP admissions process.

^bEndorsement referred to a rating of 4 or 5 (out of 5) by respondents.

Table 3.  Principal components analysis of desirable qualities: Six factor solution

		Factor loadings
Factor label	Qualities	1	2	3	4	5	6
Methodical	Thoroughness	0.624	0.051	0.102	0.061	−0.070	0.125
	Critical thinking	0.600	0.005	−0.171	−0.024	−0.084	0.321
	Adaptability	0.572	0.069	−0.034	−0.097	−0.066	0.115
	Organisational skills	0.516	−0.037	0.250	−0.317	0.212	−0.065
	Tolerance of ambiguity	0.512	0.004	0.199	0.178	−0.011	−0.125
	Perseverance	0.468	0.241	−0.194	0.024	−0.147	0.015
	Ability to work and think independently	0.443	−0.163	0.408	−0.130	−0.063	0.008
	Personal insight	0.416	0.006	0.137	−0.298	−0.095	0.138
Cognitive capacity	Intelligence	−0.051	0.829	−0.004	−0.049	−0.027	0.013
	Academic ability	0.039	0.801	−0.033	0.002	−0.018	−0.030
	Ability to simplify and explain complex concepts	0.168	0.297	0.124	−0.056	−0.077	0.179
People skills	Good verbal communication	−0.014	0.153	0.766	0.144	−0.168	0.015
	Emotionally mature/Stable	0.022	−0.157	0.544	−0.042	−0.222	0.001
	Honesty	−0.032	0.174	0.538	−0.048	0.290	0.248
	Comfort in dealing with people	0.128	0.056	0.537	−0.150	−0.076	0.069
	Cultural sensitivity	0.181	0.002	0.464	−0.145	0.075	0.294
	Good level of personal health	0.266	0.051	0.434	−0.374	0.050	−0.105
Generic work ethic	Does not take time-off work	−0.113	−0.126	−0.010	−0.780	−0.006	−0.010
	Ambitious	0.110	0.377	−0.130	−0.590	−0.111	−0.210
	Devoted to work	−0.254	0.340	0.196	−0.576	0.024	0.207
	Likeable personality	0.092	0.271	0.141	−0.442	−0.037	0.024
	Good leadership abilities	0.225	0.060	−0.059	−0.428	−0.382	0.187
Role certainty	Motivation to be a doctor	−0.057	0.172	0.163	0.070	−0.686	0.022
	Composure under pressure	0.205	−0.154	−0.132	−0.263	−0.564	0.221
	Decisiveness	0.239	0.007	0.193	−0.217	−0.521	−0.032
	Self confidence	0.154	0.288	0.235	0.071	−0.464	−0.061
Warmth	Empathy	−0.035	−0.045	−0.112	−0.085	−0.230	0.787
	Ethically sound	−0.185	0.004	0.349	0.129	−0.203	0.586
	Supportiveness to others	0.233	0.173	0.060	0.171	0.173	0.570
	Altruism	0.145	0.039	0.031	−0.074	0.285	0.456
	Ability to work in a team	0.257	−0.121	0.215	−0.170	0.062	0.372

Table 4.  Mean (SD) factor scores according to gender, age, language spoken at home and prior tertiary studies

	Gender		Age		Language other than English spoken at home		Prior tertiary studies
Factors	Male n = 74	Female n = 83	Less than 21 years n = 119	21 years and older n = 38	No n = 125	Yes n = 30	No n = 86	Yes n = 69
Methodical	4.17 (0.45)	4.18 (0.44)	4.12 (0.44)	4.4 (0.43)	4.17 (0.43)	4.18 (0.50)	4.13 (0.47)	4.26 (0.39)
Cognitive capacity	4.09 (0.57)	4.12 (0.51)	4.13 (0.54)	4.04 (0.56)	4.08 (0.49)	4.18 (0.72)	4.20 (0.55)	4.01 (0.50)
People skills	4.26 (0.53)	4.35 (0.57)	4.23 (0.51)	4.53 (0.35)	4.30 (0.48)	4.31 (0.54)	4.28 (0.53)	4.35 (0.45)
Generic work ethic	3.36 (0.65)	3.35 (0.49)	3.36 (0.60)	3.34 (0.64)	3.23 (0.59)	3.59 (0.61)	3.43 (0.59)	3.25 (0.63)
Role certainty	4.38 (0.46)	4.29 (0.49)	4.29 (0.49)	4.47 (0.41)	4.31 (0.46)	4.41 (0.54)	4.31 (0.51)	4.38 (0.43)
Warmth	4.33 (0.49)	4.43 (0.37)	4.36 (0.47)	4.46 (0.30)	4.41 (0.54)	4.49 (0.37)	4.40 (0.44)	4.37 (0.42)

Table 5.  Characteristics of student categories

	Domestic – no prior tertiary studies (DN)	Domestic – some prior tertiary studies (DT)	International student (I)
Characteristic	n = 70	n = 70	n = 18
Age
18–20	67 (95.7%)	41 (58.6%)	11 (61.1%)
21–25	1 (1.4%)	14 (20%)	7 (38.9%)
26–30	1 (1.4%)	7 (10%)	0 (0)
31+	1 (1.4%)	8 (11.4%)	0 (0)
Female	36 (51.4%)	33 (47.1%)	14 (77.8%)
Speak language other than English at home	8 (11.4%)	8 (11.6%)	14 (82.4%)
No prior tertiary studies	70 (100%)	0 (0)	16 (100%)

Table 6.  Scores of the student categories on the desirable qualities factors

Category of students	Methodical	Cognitive capacity	People skills	Generic work ethic	Role certainty	Warmth
Domestic – no prior tertiary studies (DN)	4.09^a	4.21^b	4.27	3.34^c	4.26	4.38
Domestic – some prior tertiary studies (DT)	4.26^a	4.01^b	4.35	3.25	4.38	4.37
International student (I)	4.20	4.07	4.29	3.78^c	4.43	4.44

Notes: ^aDT > DN, p = 0.026.

^bDT < DN, p = 0.02.

^cI > DN, p = 0.011; 3 > 2, p = 0.003