Matriculating background checks: Invasion of privacy or supporting Hippocratic Oath?

[floridakppr]

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"Booth calls Howard the greatest student-athlete in Arkansas history. 'You might find some student-athletes who had better athletic careers than Howard’s nine NCAA titles and two Olympics,' Booth says. 'And you might find some who had better academic careers than Howard’s 3.8 or 3.9 GPA in pre-med. But you won’t find anyone who was as accomplished as he was in both.'

Booth pauses. 'Of course, all that was certainly erased by what eventually happened.'"

Slayings Quicken Push for Med School Checks - USA TODAY

 

[Pinkertinkle]

Yep run those checks.

 

[fantasty]

Necessary evil. AAMC has to support background checks, because many hospitals require them now (as do other industries). Someone who is denied would be in a worse situation if they matriculated and attended 2 years of medical school, only to find out later that they can't rotate through any of the school's hospitals.

 

[QuantumMechanic]

he only killed his wife and himself, he never harmed a patient which makes this all irrelevant. Now does it make it OK to have let him into med school? Probably not.

 

[floridakppr]

he only killed his wife and himself, he never harmed a patient which makes this all irrelevant. Now does it make it OK to have let him into med school? Probably not.

All this irrelevant?

It's relevant because he had prior offenses: "Evidence of Howard’s violent streak was available through a criminal background check. He pleaded guilty to first-degree assault in 1998; the conviction on a Class A misdemeanor was part of a plea bargain under which felony charges of residential burglary and terroristic threats were dropped. He was accused of breaking down a door and menacing a man with a .380-caliber semiautomatic pistol." None of which he indicated on the crimal self-declaration question on his applications.

Surely, his history of emotional instability indicates that he was possibly less than capable of handling a profession where death and dying issues regularly arise. Additionally, his violent past indicates a lack of compassion for others.