Look before you start! Choosing medicine based on a realistic picture of training and the profession as a doctor

Project summary

want to become a doctor. Yet many students start medical school with wrong expectations. This can lead to less bonding, stress and even dropout. There is also a mismatch between the type of doctor that students expect to become upon arrival and the type of doctors that society needs. To train the doctors of the future, Erasmus MC is developing a new medicine curriculum, in which students can profile themselves in the field of social involvement, technology and academic education. Our challenge is to attract and select students who, in terms of interests and abilities, match this new curriculum. In this project I will develop a situational judgment test with a team of experts, including students, in which prospective students are introduced to realistic situations from the course and their future work as a doctor. This test offers prospective students a realistic picture of the life of a medical student/doctor and thus helps them to make a better informed decision whether or not to apply for the course in Rotterdam. The video-based test is offered as a matching activity to prospective students prior to the selection procedure and, again, as a (group)coaching activity during the first 100 days of the course to add to their professional identity development. I measure the effect of this project on the basis of the perceived bond with the course, doubts about study choice, profile preference, student diversity and first-year study success and drop-out.

Type the project impact here.