J Korean Med Assoc.  2014 Feb;57(2):96-103.

What is the social competency for doctors?

• Ahn D

Abstract

Practicing medicine is a social activity. Because doctor-patient interaction requires respect, leadership, and interpersonal skills that extend beyond medical diagnosis and treatment, medical education must incorporate non-clinical competencies. While qualities such as lifelong learning skills, resource management, teamwork skills, and active involvement in leadership and bettering the healthcare system have received little attention in medical academia, these competencies have proven vital for a physician in contemporary society. These non-clinical competencies are, in fact, the traits or components of social competency. Social competency has been an area of interest, particularly with regard to the development of children and adolescents, in the fields of education, psychology, and less commonly, economics. However, traditional Korean residency programs have not paid much attention to social competency due to their closed culture originating from the colonial period. Resident education is still heavily dependent on a patriarchal system based on "family" values. Resident education is concentrated in medical knowledge and skills within specialty departments functioning as a family-like unit. Specialty training has a very narrow, constrained vision without incorporating much education on the social dimension of medical practice. Nevertheless, developing a social competency scheme for resident education was initiated in 2008, when the Korean Medical Association celebrated the centennial of producing licensed physicians. However, the scheme is still under development and not widely used. Korean medical educators must, therefore, recognize the value of social competencies and include them as graduation outcomes of residency training to prepare doctors to meet the challenges of the future.

Keyword

Social competency; Medical education

MeSH Terms

Adolescent
Child
Delivery of Health Care
Diagnosis
Education
Education, Medical
Humans
Internship and Residency
Leadership
Learning
Psychology

Reference

1. World Federation for Medical Education. Role of the doctor [Internet]. Copenhagen: World Federation for Medical Education;2012. cited 2014 Jan 17. Available from: http://www.wfme.org/projects/role-of-the-doctor.

2. World Federation for Medical Education. Report of the meeting of the WFME task force: the global role of the doctor in health care [Internet]. Copenhagen: World Federation for Medical Education;cited 2014 Jan 17. Available from: http://www.wfme.org/standards/bme/doc_details/35-report-of-the-meeting-of-the-wfme-task-force--global-role-of-the-doctor-in-health-care.

3. Ahn D. Development of medical professionalism in South Korea. J Korean Med Assoc. 2011; 54:1137–1145.

4. Frenk J, Chen L, Bhutta ZA, Cohen J, Crisp N, Evans T, Fine-berg H, Garcia P, Ke Y, Kelley P, Kistnasamy B, Meleis A, Naylor D, Pablos-Mendez A, Reddy S, Scrimshaw S, Sepulveda J, Serwadda D, Zurayk H. Health professionals for a new century: transforming education to strengthen health systems in an interdependent world. Lancet. 2010; 376:1923–1958.

5. Lee YM, Ahn DS. A preliminary study for exploring the attributes of being a "good doctor". Korean J Med Educ. 2007; 19:313–323.

6. Schoon I. Measuring social competencies: RatSWD working paper no. 58 [Internet]. Berlin: Council for Social and Education Data;2009. cited 2014 Jan 17. Available from: http://www.ratswd.de/download/RatSWD_WP_2009/RatSWD_WP_58.pdf.

7. French National Council of Medicine. Quality and competence in medicine. Paris: A deontological challenge;2000.

8. Ahn D. The public dialogue and conflict resolution skills of Korean physicians. J Korean Med Assoc. 2012; 55:1156–1159.

9. MacIntyre AC. After virtue: a study in moral theory. 2nd ed. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press;1984.

10. Ahn D, Kim MK, Han HJ, Lee MK, Kwon BG. A study on research topics and supporting schemes for building social capacities for the medical profession. Sejong: Ministry of Health and Welfare;2013.

11. Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. CanMEDs framework [Internet]. Ottawa: Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada;2013. cited 2014 Jan 17. Available from: http://www.royalcollege.ca/portal/page/portal/rc/canmeds/framework.

12. Royal College of Physicians. Non-clinical CPD [Internet]. London: Royal College of Physicians;cited 2014 Jan 17. Available from: http://www.rcplondon.ac.uk/cpd/non-clinical-cpd.

13. Loignon C, Haggerty JL, Fortin M, Bedos CP, Allen D, Barbeau D. Physicians' social competence in the provision of care to persons living in poverty: research protocol. BMC Health Serv Res. 2010; 10:79.

14. Tychmanowicz A, Kuspit M. Social competences of health service workers: pilot study. Prog Health Sci. 2012; 2:107–112.

15. Harris G. New for aspiring doctors, the people skills test. The New York Times. 2011. 07. 10.

16. Hofstede GH, Hofstede GJ, Minkov M. Cultures and organizations: software of the mind. 3rd ed. Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill;2010.