What are the attributes of a good Medical Education

Abstract

This question is particularly pertinent at a time when medical schools are responding to the WHO / WFME1 and the AEME2 call for relevant standards in undergraduate medical education.
Those who have a vision about medical education3, base their thinking on three over-arching parameters; the nature of medical care in the future, the character of the graduate doctor facing a long-lifetime of personal and professional development4 and the ethos of the medical school.
Medical care in the future will change. The change is driven by developments in the knowledge and skills about, and approaches towards, present illness and wellness, Additionally, there will be unforeseen conditions that challenge conventional wisdom.
Those who graduate now, will be at the heart of driving the change, and responding to the challenges into the next century. These graduates will epitomise a “medical practitioner†and ipso facto, a “human being†able to face the uncertainties of their own private and professional lives with intellectual, emotional and moral resilience5
Doctors are not born, but are made, and, clearly the role of the medical school is to prepare good doctors who are equipped to face a long life-time of personal and professional development6. The issue of a humanist7 and a professional8 perspectives in a changing world has been addressed elsewhere. But at the core of all good medical schools are good leaders9 who lead by inspiration. They know that the attributes of a good Medical Education are comprised from a blend of personal and professional qualities that prepare a person for the certainty of uncertainty within the foreseeable future, and beyond. I will give the final word to Sir William Osler:
“The practice of medicine is an art, not a trade; a calling, not a business; a calling in which your heart will be exercised equally with your head. Often the best part of your work will have nothing to do with potions and powders, but with the exercise of an influence of the strong upon the weak, of the righteous upon the wicked, of the wise upon the foolish.â€10