An exploratory study on the contribution of graduate entry students personality to the diversity of medical student populations

Abstract

Studies conducted in medical education show that personality influences undergraduate medical students academic and clinical performances and also their career interests. Our aims with this exploratory study were: to assess the contribution of graduate entry students to the diversity of personality in medical student populations; to assess whether eventual differences may be explained by programme structure or student age and sex. We performed a cross-sectional study underpinned by the five-factor model of personality, with students attending three medical schools in Portugal. The five personality dimensions were assessed with the Portuguese version of the NEO-Five Factor Inventory. MANOVA and MANCOVA analyses were performed to clarify the contributions of school, programme structure, age and sex. Student personality dimensions were significantly different between the three medical schools [F(10,1026) = 3.159, p < .001, = 0.03, π = 0.987]. However, taking sex and age into account the differences became non-significant. There were institutional differences in personality dimensions. However, those were primarily accounted for by sex and age effects and not by the medical school attended. Diversifying age and sex of the admitted students will diversify the personality of the medical student population.

Comparison of graduate‐entry and direct school leaver student performance on an applied dental knowledge test

“…There is an ongoing debate comparing the strengths and weaknesses of graduate and undergraduate entrants to the medical schools . In this regard, a range of attributes of medical students have been investigated including academic achievement , clinical performance , research performance and personality profiles . However, there is a dearth of published literature investigating the effects and implications of graduate‐ and direct school leaver‐entry criteria in undergraduate dental education.…”