Theodore Schwartz: evaluation

Transcript context

…Let’s say we put you in charge of the process selecting who gets trained to become a neurosurgeon. How would you improve what we do now? We choose, at the top programs, surgeons often based on research criteria. A lot of the top programs want someone who has worked in labs and proven that they have a research brain and that they’re going to contribute to the field. That is one aspect of neurosurgery for sure. We want people who are going to improve what we do because medicine is constantly evolving, and we need to get better. But on the other hand, surgery is very much a tactile, physical sport that requires judgment and coordination and stamina and sacrifice and grit. Some of the best neurosurgeons combine all of those qualities. We interview the residents for 20 minutes when they come in. It’s very hard to evaluate them on all of those qualifications. What a lot of students do who want to go into neurosurgery is, they’ll actually rotate at that program. They’ll show up there and spend a month, and we’ll see what they’re like. We’ll see if they have the stamina. We’ll see how they function at 6:00 am, and if they’re functioning just as well at 9:00 pm. If they’re upbeat and they can maintain a positive attitude and positive mood in the face of all of that work, then that’s a good sign that they’ll do well. But I don’t think we fully evaluate our neurosurgery residents as well as we should. I think you’re right. We need some more grit, physical stamina assessments that we can apply to them. How much does IQ matter?…

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