University of Nottingham, UK.
BMC Med Educ. 2009 Nov 13;9:67. doi: 10.1186/1472-6920-9-67.
At Nottingham University more than 95% of entrants to the traditional 5-year medical course are school leavers. Since 2003 we have admitted graduate entrants (GEM) to a shortened (4-year) course to 'widen access to students from more disadvantaged backgrounds'. We have recently shown that the GEM course widens academic and socio-demographic diversity of the medical student population. This study explored whether GEM students also bring psychological diversity and whether this could be beneficial.
We studied: a) 217 and 96 applicants to the Nottingham 5- and 4-year courses respectively, applying in the 2002-3 UCAS cycle, and, b) 246 school leavers starting the 5-year course and 39 graduate entrants to the 4-year course in October 2003. The psychological profiles of the two groups of applicants and two groups of entrants were compared using their performance in the Goldberg 'Big 5' Personality test, the Personal Qualities Assessment (PQA; measuring interpersonal traits and interpersonal values), and the Lovibond and Lovibond measure of depression, anxiety and stress. For the comparison of the Entrants we excluded the 33 school leavers and seven graduates who took the tests as Applicants.Statistical analyses were undertaken using SPSS software (version 16.0).
Graduate applicants compared to school leaver applicants were significantly more conscientious, more confident, more self controlled, more communitarian in moral orientation and less anxious. Only one of these differences was preserved in the entrants with graduates being less anxious. However, the graduate entrants were significantly less empathetic and conscientious than the school leavers.
This study has shown that school leaver and graduate entrants to medical school differ in some psychological characteristics. However, if confirmed in other studies and if they were manifest in the extreme, not all the traits brought by graduates would be desirable for someone aiming for a medical career.
在诺丁汉大学，超过 95%的传统五年制医学课程的入学新生都是应届高中毕业生。自 2003 年以来，我们已经录取了研究生入学新生（GEM）进入缩短（四年）课程，以“扩大来自背景较为不利的学生的入学机会”。我们最近表明，GEM 课程拓宽了医学生群体的学业和社会人口多样性。本研究探讨了 GEM 学生是否也带来了心理多样性，以及这是否有益。
我们研究了：a）分别申请诺丁汉大学五年制和四年制课程的 217 名和 96 名申请人，申请时间为 2002-2003 年 UCAS 周期，以及 b）2003 年 10 月开始五年制课程的 246 名应届高中毕业生和 39 名研究生入学新生。使用 Goldberg“五大”人格测试、个人素质评估（PQA；衡量人际特质和人际价值观）以及 Lovibond 和 Lovibond 抑郁、焦虑和压力量表，比较了两组申请人和两组入学新生的心理特征。对于入学新生的比较，我们排除了作为申请人参加测试的 33 名应届高中毕业生和 7 名毕业生。使用 SPSS 软件（版本 16.0）进行统计分析。
与应届高中毕业生申请人相比，研究生申请人更有责任心、更自信、更自我控制、道德取向更具社区意识、焦虑程度更低。只有这些差异中的一个在入学新生中得以保留，即研究生入学新生焦虑程度较低。然而，与应届高中毕业生相比，研究生入学新生的同理心和责任心明显较低。
本研究表明，医学生的应届高中毕业生和研究生入学新生在某些心理特征上存在差异。然而，如果在其他研究中得到证实，如果这些特征在极端情况下表现出来，并非所有研究生带来的特征都适合那些希望从事医学职业的人。
