Abstract Book of the 9th World Conference on Research in Education
Year: 2025
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What Makes a Good Doctor? Developing a Competency Framework for Medical Student Selection
Prof. Dr. Crizelle Els, Marissa Brouwers, Cara Sophia Jonker, Karlien van Zyl, Caria van den Berg
ABSTRACT:
The competence of a medical doctor extends far beyond clinical skills. The character and conduct of medical practitioners are essential for quality care, ethical practice, and trust in the profession. Situational Judgement Tests (SJTs) have emerged as a valid and context-sensitive approach for assessing these non-clinical attributes in medical student selection, complementary to traditional academic criteria. In response to the need for effective and contextually relevant medical student selection tools in South Africa, this study aimed to develop a competency framework to inform a Situational Judgement Test (SJT) aimed at selecting medical students. The study followed a qualitative descriptive research design, and data was collected via an online qualitative survey distributed to a purposive sample of 50 certified medical doctors across South Africa through expert and snowball sampling techniques. The participating doctors responded to a single open-ended question prompting their views on the most important non-clinical traits, skills, and behaviours a doctor should possess. Inductive content analysis was used to analyse responses. The findings resulted in the identification of 11 broad competency domains, including cognitive and analytical skills, sound judgement, communication skills, interpersonal skills, leadership skills, compassion and patient-centeredness, ethics, integrity and professional conduct, self-management and agency, work ethic, attention to detail, learning orientation, and agility. These dimensions reflect a holistic and inclusive view of the attributes required for long-term success in the medical profession and offer valuable insights for enhancing the fairness and relevance of selection practices. The proposed framework will inform the development of a context-sensitive SJT to support more equitable, values-aligned admission decisions in South African medical education.
Keywords: admission tools, medical education, qualitative research, selection criteria, situational judgement