How important is confidence and sociability for Medical School?

[swim97]

I am interested in Medical School but I am extremely lacking in confidence and social skills.

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Talking with strangers that want to get to know me triggers a "panic", and I try my hardest to end the conversation as quickly as possible by nodding, smiling nervously and saying "yeah, anyways see ya!" where I take off in the opposite direction.

How important is confidence and sociability for Medical School? Anyone got any secrets

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[deleted1001426]

I mean you don’t have to be one of those people who thrive off of socializing but you’re pursuing a profession which involves frequent social interaction and like all patient/customer centric fields, requires confidence during said encounters. Just think how you’d feel if you went to a doctor and after talking about your problem their response was to smile awkwardly while saying “yeah, anyways see ya”..
You’re also going to need to get through multiple interviews (med school, residency and then eventually for jobs) so it’s in your best interest to work through your issues sooner rather than later

 

[ciestar]

A lot of medicine is talking to people you don’t know.

As far as sociability.. im an introvert big time. I am good at faking it during the day but I majorly have to decompress after i go home. You need to be able to be friendly and have conversations with people. You cant give off the vibe you’d rather be anywhere but here.

Confidence is tricky. A good quote i like to live by is “fake it ‘till you make it”

 

[gyngyn]

Social skills are a core competency that you need to exhibit before applying to medical school.

The Core Competencies for Entering Medical Students

Successful medical school applicants are able to demonstrate skills, knowledge, and abilities in these areas. As you’ll see in the Anatomy of An Applicant student profiles, one experience can illustrate proficiency across multiple competencies.

students-residents.aamc.org

 

[LizzyM]

The good news is that people seeking care would prefer to talk about themselves than hear you talk about yourself. Just say, "enough about me, tell me about what brings you here..." This works for clinical settings and in volunteer experiences.

Get out of your comfort zone with some volunteering that gets you working side-by-side with people who need your help because they are too young, too old, too sick or too poor to help themselves.

 

[jurassicpark]

Sure, there may be some that MD fields that are less face-to-face encounters but you will have to interact with others and strangers on a very routine basis for a good chunk if not most fields of medicine. I literally am talking to administration, consultants, nursing, patients, family, etc non stop through my 12 hour shift. Confidence is of the utmost importance because they're putting their trust in you. The nurses need to make sure you're confident of what you're doing, especially when the proverbial feces hits the fan.

This does not mean you have to be a strutting rooster, but you do and will have to be able to interact with people. Even mundane administrative issues, I have to be in meetings in between patient care and etc. I have to be able to introduce myself, talk about what I want and need, or rain holy hell fire on someone if needed. I have to talk to CEOs, COOs, CMOs, etc. If interacting with random people gives you anxiety, not to add on but you will have to work with the top echelons of your department, hospital, healthcare etc. Many a time have I flipped the bird to the CMO.

That being said, believe it or not I was actually a shy guy too. But if this is something you want, you just have to said, "Screw it." You got into medical school, you made it through, who's gonna question or bully you now? In fact, my wife says I'm the bully these days :-( But if medicine is something you want, even to get into it will be meetings, interviews and graded on interaction. You can try practicing, or possibly seek counseling if you're that shy?

BTW, nothing wrong with video games. Spent waaaaay too many hours on things like Fallout, the various sim iterations, and the Total War series myself. My wife actually got involved in League of Legends tournaments.. says I'm a troll and won't let me play :-(

 

[Moko]

Extroverts tend to do better on clinical rotations from my experience. I'm an introvert but learned to fake it. Being able to be social and build professional relationships is important, as you will rely on others, during training and after. Having said that, plenty of physicians are introverts by nature.

 

[getdown]

Social skills aren't as important during M1/2 years where you'll be buried in a book anyway. You'll have the random patient encounter experience here and there but otherwise you're on your own. Clinical rotations are different. Extroverts who get along with the residents/attendings tend to have better evaluations just because they're more personable and likeable. You can still get good evals regardless if you put in the work and show interest and effort. But just like all subjective grading, the more you're liked, the better the grade.

 

[gyngyn]

Extroverts who get along with the residents/attendings tend to have better evaluations just because they're more personable and likeable.

Introverts are as least as good as extroverts.

 

[getdown]

Introverts are as least as good as extroverts.

Sure, no one said introverts are less capable than extroverts. I'm an introvert myself. But in clinicals where your grades are to some extent based on how you interact with the team, residents and attendings it's harder to make an impression as an introvert. A lot of times, the people filling out the evals for the attendings are the residents. The attendings just sign off. Sometimes you only have a handful of interactions with a student (especially in Anesthesia) and you kinda just gotta go with your gut on the evals. A student who is engaging, asks good questions, etc just gives off a better impression than someone who's shy and doesn't ask much or has to be prodded to get them to talk. Its harder for introverts to feel comfortable being like that with someone new ... it just takes time sometimes to warm up. Again, I'm kind of this way myself. Just speaking from experience.

 

[gyngyn]

Sure, no one said introverts are less capable than extroverts. I'm an introvert myself. But in clinicals where your grades are to some extent based on how you interact with the team, residents and attendings it's harder to make an impression as an introvert. A lot of times, the people filling out the evals for the attendings are the residents. The attendings just sign off. Sometimes you only have a handful of interactions with a student (especially in Anesthesia) and you kinda just gotta go with your gut on the evals. A student who is engaging, asks good questions, etc just gives off a better impression than someone who's shy and doesn't ask much or has to be prodded to get them to talk. Its harder for introverts to feel comfortable being like that with someone new ... it just takes time sometimes to warm up. Again, I'm kind of this way myself. Just speaking from experience.

There is little evidence that extroverts get better evals.