A Struggle for the Soul of Medicine: Can physicians be trained to care?

At most medical schools in the United States, students are given a white coat during a ceremony in the first weeks after matriculation, and they are told about the role they will play and their obligation to serve others. These days medical training, both at the undergraduate and postgraduate (residency training) levels, is explicitly linked to attaining specific competencies. The decision to require demonstration of competencies reflects a perception that American doctors might be well trained in science and technology but lack some other crucial skills one would want from a doctor. It is an effort to remedy the worst deficiencies.

The This article appears in November 5 2007.