Virtual Mentor. July 2006, Volume 8, Number 07

Ethics Poll

Women, warmth, and emotional intelligence in medicine

The Ethics Poll is a snapshot of the opinions of interested readers.

1. You have a competent primary care physician. How important is it to you (on a scale of 1-10 where 1 = not at all important and 10 = extremely important) that he or she demonstrate warmth, friendliness and interest in you as a person?
1-2
3-4
5-6
7-8
9-10

2. Emotional intelligence (EI) quotients measure self- and social-awareness, self-regulation and social skills. Do you think admissions committees should attempt to assess the emotional intelligence of medical school applicants?
Yes
No

3. Fifty percent or more of medical students are women. Which do you think will be the most significant effect of this "feminization" of medicine?
No significant effect.
More physicians will enter specialties that allow greater control over work schedule.
More physicians will enter relationship-intensive, primary care specialties.
Healthy balance between work and home life will become more common among all physicians.

View results
Poll results reflect the opinions of visitors to the site who voluntarily answer the poll questions. Those visitors do not represent a random sample of Virtual Mentor readers. The viewpoints expressed on this site are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the AMA.