Ability

I shall not discuss the political side of this matter. Frequent visitors of this site would know I explain my opinion on the general principles of recruiting medical students in a few occasions. There are two important points that I need to highlight:

• An enthusiastic and kind-hearted person is not necessarily a good doctor (if he is ignorant enough). 
• The quality of medical graduates depend very little on the teaching they receive, but, by and large, on their intrinsic capability.

For the first point, some of you may argue, “Knowledge and capability are important, but a good doctor must be eager to help and kind at heart. What good is there to have a clinician with superb skill but is only interested in making money?”

Translated to the language of logic, we mean humanistic characters are necessary conditions, but not sufficient conditions, for a good doctor.

Simple, eh?

The inevitable implication of this conclusion is we cannot admit all saints to the medical school – we must consider their ability.