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The incorporation of an assessment tool such as the PQA may have positive implications for widening access and the objective selection of suitable medical students, resulting in the training of doctors who are more representative of the community at large. A longterm follow-up of the professional careers of those medical students who completed the PQA will be undertaken.

PurposeResearch has consistently found that the proportion of medical students who experience high levels of psychological distress is significantly greater than that found in the general population. The aim of our research was to assess the levels of psychological distress more extensively than has been done before, and to determine likely predictors of distress and well-being.Subjects and methodsIn 2013, students from an Australian undergraduate medical school (n=127) completed a questionnaire that recorded general demographics, hours per week spent studying, in paid work, volunteer work, and physical exercise; past and current physical and mental health, social support, substance use, measures of psychological distress (Kessler Psychological Distress Scale, depression, anxiety, stress, burnout); and personality traits.ResultsFemales were found to have higher levels of psychological distress than males. However, in regression analysis, the effect of sex was reduced to nonsignificance when other variables were included as predictors of psychological distress. The most consistent significant predictors of our 20 indicators of psychological distress were social support and the personality traits of emotional resilience and self-control.ConclusionThe findings suggest that emotional resilience skills training embedded into the medical school curriculum could reduce psychological distress among medical students.

An investigation into personality factors possibly underlying ethical behaviour in medical students and doctors indicated the importance of two primary dimensions, empathy and narcissism. Experimental questionnaires based on these dimensions were constructed and administered to large samples of medical school applicants. Factor analyses suggested the presence of four factors, labelled Narcissism, Aloofness, Empathy and Confidence. These were combined in a 100-item instrument intended for screening purposes. This paper reports on two construct validation studies for the intrument, with New Zealand medical students (n = 237) and Scottish medical school applicants (n = 510), using overlapping batteries of personality scales. The validity coefficients for the samples indicate similar constructs for narcissism (related to disagreeableness, aggressiveness, aloofness from others, sensitivity to rewards, and anxiety), and empathy (related positively to emotional intelligence, extraversion, open-mindedness, compliance with others and negatively to aloofness). Factor analysis supports the hypothesis of separate dimensions for narcissistic aggression and empathic relationships.

The model presented is based on a currently best-practice approach and uses measures and methods that maximise the probability of making accurate, fair and defensible selection decisions.

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PurposeThe initial aim of this multiagency, multigenerational record linkage study is to identify childhood profiles of developmental vulnerability and resilience, and to identify the determinants of these profiles. The eventual aim is to identify risk and protective factors for later childhood-onset and adolescent-onset mental health problems, and other adverse social outcomes, using subsequent waves of record linkage. The research will assist in informing the development of public policy and intervention guidelines to help prevent or mitigate adverse long-term health and social outcomes.ParticipantsThe study comprises a population cohort of 87 026 children in the Australian State of New South Wales (NSW). The cohort was defined by entry into the first year of full-time schooling in NSW in 2009, at which time class teachers completed the Australian Early Development Census (AEDC) on each child (with 99.7% coverage in NSW). The AEDC data have been linked to the children's birth, health, school and child protection records for the period from birth to school entry, and to the health and criminal records of their parents, as well as mortality databases.Findings to dateDescriptive data summarising sex, geographic and socioeconomic distributions, and linkage rates for the various administrative databases are presented. Child data are summarised, and the mental health and criminal records data of the children's parents are provided.Future plansIn 2015, at age 11 years, a self-report mental health survey was administered to the cohort in collaboration with government, independent and Catholic primary school sectors. A second record linkage, spanning birth to age 11 years, will be undertaken to link this survey data with the aforementioned administrative databases. This will enable a further identification of putative risk and protective factors for adverse mental health and other outcomes in adolescence, which can then be tested in subsequent record linkages.

BackgroundOver two-thirds of UK medical schools are augmenting their selection procedures for medical students by using the United Kingdom Clinical Aptitude Test (UKCAT), which employs tests of cognitive and non-cognitive personal qualities, but clear evidence of the tests’ predictive validity is lacking. This study explores whether academic performance and professional behaviours that are important in a health professional context can be predicted by these measures, when taken before or very early in the medical course.MethodsThis prospective cohort study follows the progress of the entire student cohort who entered Hull York Medical School in September 2007, having taken the UKCAT cognitive tests in 2006 and the non-cognitive tests a year later. This paper reports on the students’ first and second academic years of study. The main outcome measures were regular, repeated tutor assessment of individual students’ interpersonal skills and professional behaviour, and annual examination performance in the three domains of recall and application of knowledge, evaluation of data, and communication and practical clinical skills. The relationships between non-cognitive test scores, cognitive test scores, tutor assessments and examination results were explored using the Pearson product–moment correlations for each group of data; the data for students obtaining the top and bottom 20% of the summative examination results were compared using Analysis of Variance.ResultsPersonal qualities measured by non-cognitive tests showed a number of statistically significant relationships with ratings of behaviour made by tutors, with performance in each year’s objective structured clinical examinations (OSCEs), and with themed written summative examination marks in each year. Cognitive ability scores were also significantly related to each year’s examination results, but seldom to professional behaviours. The top 20% of examination achievers could be differentiated from the bottom 20% on both non-cognitive and cognitive measures.ConclusionsThis study shows numerous significant relationships between both cognitive and non-cognitive test scores, academic examination scores and indicators of professional behaviours in medical students. This suggests that measurement of non-cognitive personal qualities in applicants to medical school could make a useful contribution to selection and admission decisions. Further research is required in larger representative groups, and with more refined predictor measures and behavioural assessment methods, to establish beyond doubt the incremental validity of such measures over conventional cognitive assessments.