The proposal to carry out an aptitude test to access the Medicine career has been on the lips of the sector for some time, but it has been the reform of the Ministry of Universities that has reopened the debate by establishing a series of maturity tests as part of the new ‘selectivity’. Added to this project is the proposal to carry out extra test to access the Medicine degree, which many have interpreted as a kind of vocation exam. The MIR and Medicine students show Medical Writing your doubts about this system, both on its usefulness and on the way in which it is carried outconsidering it “too subjective” and hasty, since most agree that 18-year-olds do not know the profession well enough.
“If it is going to be a vocation exam to access the degree, I am against it, it seems to me something quite difficult to evaluate. Let it be done a voluntary and anonymous test that it does not have transcendence in the access of the students to the career yes it seems to me good, I’m not sure what it can be used for though.“, says Beatriz López, a medical student.
To this, Paula Berigüete, a first-year resident of Hematology, adds: “What are you going to evaluate, subjective or practical elements? You can’t give an 18-year-old boy an exam talking about practical things about Medicine.” “It seems somewhat contradictory to me, since precisely one enters a career to train and study it,” adds another young man who is preparing for the MIR.
For his part, Daniel Hernández, a resident of Dermatology, clarifies that, although what this test will consist of has not been specified, is against it being a requirement to enter the race: “When you are 18 years old, you don’t know what it is to be a doctor, you don’t know what you like, what you are willing to do or not, if you like contact with the patient or hate it.”
Is the aptitude test to access Medicine a vocation test?
One of the approaches that has been highlighted the most in social networks is that this aptitude test It is, in fact, an examination of vocation. This formulation is controversial among students.
“I think it’s good because there many people who show up and do not have that vocation“, affirms the resident of Hematology, while other colleagues defend that many times that vocation is developing.
“You find your vocation as the years go by and what you find in your career depends a lot on it. That is, the university should not measure the vocation of aspiring doctors, but promote it during the 6 years of my career”, explains the Dermatology resident.
“A person can start with a vocation and then lose itonce he comes into contact with the reality of the health system and working conditions,” says the MIR student, who concludes by stating that he does not believe that this exam “can be fair or proportional.”
Is there a system to evaluate the vocation of a doctor?
The young man who is preparing to be a resident doctor insists that, although this system has worked in other countries, it does not have to work in Spain: “Education is different, society, the health system is different”. “Selectivity is at least an objective test, but the subject seems very complicated to me because no method seems perfect to me,” Paula concludes.
Finally, Daniel affirms that “quite a proof of vocation is to want to do Medicine” and proposes that before entering the race, be aware of what it really consists of: “A 6-year career, a MIR opposition, 5 guards a month, job instability and a high possibility of burnout and fear of going to trial. If it sounds good to you, go ahead, it is the most beautiful profession in the world. If not, you will find your site helping people in another career”.
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