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Technical Standards for Admission
In accordance with section 504 of the Rehabilitative Act of 1973 (PL 93-112) and following careful review of the 1979 report by a Special Advisory panel on Technical Standards of the Association of American Medical Colleges, and incorporating the guidelines of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA PL 101-336) enacted by Congress in 1990, the West Virginia University School of Medicine has adopted minimal technical standards for the assessment of all applicants to the School of Medicine.
Because the M.D. degree signifies that the holder is a physician prepared for entry into the practice of medicine, it follows that graduates must have the knowledge and skills to function in a broad variety of clinical situations and to render a wide spectrum of patient care.
Candidates for the M.D. degree must have somatic sensation and the functional use of the senses of vision and hearing. Candidates' diagnostic skills will also be lessened without the functional use of the senses of equilibrium, smell, and taste. Additionally, they must have sufficient exteroceptive sense (touch, pain, and temperature, sufficient proprioceptive sense (position, pressure, movement, stereognosis, and vibratory) and sufficient motor function to permit them to carry out the activities described in the Sections that follow. They must be able to consistently, quickly, and accurately integrate all information received by whatever sense(s) employed, and they must have the intellectual ability to learn, integrate, analyze, and synthesize data.
A candidate for the M.D. degree must have abilities and skills of five varieties including observation; communication; motor; conceptual, integrative and quantitative; and behavioral and social. Technological compensation can be made for some handicaps in certain of these areas, but a candidate should be able to perform in a reasonably independent manner. The use of a trained intermediary means that a candidate's judgment must be mediated by someone else's power of selection and observation.
I. Observation:
The candidate must be able to observe demonstrations and experiments in the basic sciences, including but not limited to physiologic and pharmacologic demonstrations, microbiologic cultures, and microscopic studies of microorganisms and tissues in normal and pathologic states. A candidate must also be able to observe a patient accurately at a distance and close at hand. Observation necessitates the functional use of the sense of vision and somatic sensation. It is enhanced by the functional use of the sense of smell.
II. Communication:
A candidate should be able to speak, to hear, and to observe patients in order to elicit information, describe changes in mood, activity, and posture, and perceive nonverbal communications. A candidate must be able to communicate effectively and sensitively with patients. Communication includes not only speech but reading and writing. The candidate must be able to communicate effectively and efficiently in oral and written form with all members of the health care team.
III. Motor:
Candidates should have sufficient motor function to elicit information from patients by palpation, auscultation, percussion, and other diagnostic maneuvers.
A candidate should be able to do basic laboratory tests (urinalysis, CBC, etc.), carry out diagnostic procedures (proctoscopy, paracentesis, etc.), and read EKG's and x-rays. A candidate should be able to execute motor movements reasonably required to provide general care and emergency treatment to patients. Examples of emergency treatment reasonably required of physicians are cardiopulmonary resuscitation, the administration of intravenous medication, the application of pressure to stop bleeding, the opening of obstructed airways, the suturing of simple wounds, and the performance of simple obstetrical maneuvers. Such actions require coordination of both gross and fine muscular movements, equilibrium, and functional use of the senses of touch and vision.
IV. Intellectual-Conceptual, Integrative, and Quantitative Abilities:
These abilities include measurement, calculation, reasoning, analysis, and synthesis. Problem solving, the creative skills demanded of physicians, requires all these intellectual abilities. In addition, the candidate should be able to comprehend three-dimensional relationships and to understand the spatial relationships of structures.
V. Behavioral and Social Attributes:
A candidate must possess the emotional health required for full utilization of his/her intellectual abilities, the exercise of good judgment, the prompt completion of all responsibilities attendant to the diagnosis and care of patients, the development of mature, sensitive, and effective relationships with patients. Candidates must be able to tolerate physically taxing workloads and to function effectively under stress. They must be able to adapt to changing environments, to display flexibility, and to learn to function in the face of uncertainties inherent in the clinical problems of many patients. Compassion, integrity, concern for others, interpersonal skills, interest, and motivation are all personal qualities that should be assessed during the admissions and education processes. A candidate must readily be willing and able to examine any patient regardless of the patient's age, color, disability, national origin, race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, veteran status or political beliefs.
A candidate must inform the Office of Student Services immediately if he or she becomes unable to carry out the abilities and skills listed babove. Additionally, should the student have or acquire an infectious disease or other condition that could put patients or the public at risk through exposure to their blood or other bodily fluids (e.g. hepatitis, syphilis, tuberculosis, HIV), he or she should notify the Office of Student Services immediately.
In its evaluation of applicants to the West Virginia University School of Medicine, the Committee on Admissions will approach each applicant with the following questions in mind. When an applicant does not meet a non-academic standard as defined above, and when this would in the professional judgment of the Committee not satisfy the School of Medicine's objectives for the student in patient care, education, and research, such opinion will be documented in the minutes of the Committee on Admissions.
The questions are not designed to disqualify applicants, but rather to give the Committee on Admissions more complete information about an applicant's ability to meet the non-academic standards adopted by the School of Medicine.
- Is the candidate able to observe demonstrations and experiments in the basic sciences?
- Is the candidate able to analyze, synthesize, solve problems, and reach diagnostic and therapeutic judgments?
- Does the candidate have sufficient use of the senses of vision and hearing and the somatic sensation necessary to perform a physical examination? Can the candidate perform palpation, auscultation, and percussion?
- Can the candidate reasonably be expected to relate to patients and establish sensitive, professional relationship with patients?
- Can the candidate reasonable be expected to communicate the results of the examination to the patient and to his/her colleagues with accuracy, clarity, and efficiency?
- Can the candidate reasonably be expected to learn and perform routine laboratory tests and the diagnostic procedures?
- Can the candidate reasonably be expected to display good judgment in the assessment and treatment of patients?
- Can the candidate reasonably be expected to perform with precise, quick, and appropriate actions in emergency situations?
- Can the candidate reasonably be expected to accept criticism and respond by appropriate modification of behavior?
- Can the candidate reasonably be expected to possess the perseverance, diligence, and consistency to complete the medical school curriculum and enter the independent practice of medicine?
Revised June 2008
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