Medical students in a hospital.
The faculties of Medicine of Catalonia give the first step to implement a personal aptitude test to the students who want to study Medicine in Spain. Next September, the start date of the 2022-2023 academic year, Medicine students from this region will participate in a pilot test voluntarily, anonymously and whose purpose is diagnostic for its establishment with all the guarantees in the near future.
This is confirmed by dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences of the Rovira i Virgili University (URV) and coordinator of the personal aptitude tests (PAP) of Medicine of Catalonia, Antoni Castro Salomóin an interview with Medical Writing and the Department of Research and Universities. Castro explains that the test is “in a validation process” and “it is not expected to be a requirement to enter the race”. However, in 2020 the agents involved in this project announced that the measure would apply from the 2022-2023 academic year.
Once the design phase has been completed, the testing phase is currently underway. “We have to be sure of what we want to measurethat the test be discriminative and reliable,” says Castro. “Anything we do it must be to improve what we have. We have to be sure of these changes to do the test,” she adds.
In September, the validation tests will be carried out with the personal aptitude pilot test, to find out the results of its possible implementation. Castro makes it clear that “these tests They will not be of any importance to the students. that they do it, it will be a voluntary and anonymous test to find out if the test works or not.
In that line, the Department of Research and Universities notes that “the working group is just finishing up the proof, which will be done in a coordinated manner in all Catalan universities and will be voluntary. The personal aptitude tests will be carried out as a pilot test and above all with a diagnostic purpose“.
The deans insist on modifying access to Medicine
“All the deans of the faculties of medicine in Catalonia agree on the need to modify the access mechanism to the Degree; I believe that it is a mistake to continue as before because there is no country around us that does not have a personal aptitude test,” Castro claims. The consensus is “total and absolute” and shared at the same time with the deans of the faculties of Medicine throughout Spainwho addressed this issue at the 79th General Assembly of the National Conference of Deans of Spanish Faculties of Medicine (Cndfme), held last March.
The working group focuses on improving the current access system and handles several options: an aptitude test for newly admitted Medicine Degree students or a pre-selectivity test, a more “complex path because it is a common process throughout the State”. However, its objective is to personal aspects are taken into accountin addition to intellectuals, at the time of admitting students to the Medicine degree for “choosing which is the best raw material to become a good doctor”maintains the test coordinator.
“We all agree that access to the Medicine Degree is not ideal and this test will serve to guarantee that the student who enters is better than the one who enters now”, defends Castro. These personal aptitude tests are already established in countries such as Belgium, Holland, Italy, Germany, United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and Canada , among others, and was a compromise reached in the Edinburgh Declaration de la World Federation of Medical Education.
However, the final decision of when and from what course these tests will be carried out in firm will be taken following analyzing the results of the pilot test. The Working Group for the Improvement of Medical Studies, created within the framework of the Interuniversity Council of Catalonia (CIC) to improve the initial training of doctors, is working on this. In this sense, the Department of Research and Universities values positively that the tests are done “once the student has accessed the degree and not as a prerequisite” and also alleges that “it allows universities to make tutorial action adapted to the needs of students“.
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