Tino Mkorombindo is a third year MD/MBA candidate at the University of Louisville School of Medicine/College of Business. You can follow him on instagram, twitter, or linkedin

Physicians are some of the most interesting people you will meet though they may have unique hobbies and interests. Fundamentally, they all exhibit variations of the same core qualities. As a future physician, you should be able to demonstrate skills, knowledge, and abilities in these areas. Here, we will discuss the Associate of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) ‘s core competencies of a physician. They also provide a helpful guide on the Anatomy of An Applicant guide that you can use to sell-assess. 

1. Service Orientation: You need to demonstrate a desire to help others and strive to alleviate others’ distress. This means you must be willing to recognize and act on your responsibilities to society locally, nationally, and globally. Essential, a physician should have empathy and strive to be a Greater Influence on their community. 
2. Social Skills: You need to show awareness of others’ needs, goals, feelings, and the ways that social and behavioral cues affect peoples’ interactions and behaviors. Your knowledge should result in an adjustment in your practice based on those observations. You should also treat others with respect while doing so.
3. Cultural Competence: You must have the knowledge or desire to obtain a new understanding of cultural factors that affect peoples’ interactions and behaviors. As a physician, you will interact with individuals from diverse backgrounds, so you must show appreciation and respect for multiple dimensions of diversity. You must be able to engage diverse and competing perspectives as a resource for learning, citizenship, and work. You must be able to interact effectively with people from diverse backgrounds. You must also be able to recognize and appropriately address bias in yourself and others; 
4. Teamwork: You must be able to collaborate with others to achieve shared goals because medicine is a multi-disciplinary team effort. You should be willing to share information and knowledge with others and provide feedback. You must also be willing to put team goals ahead of individual goals.
5. Oral Communication: You must be able to effectively convey information to others using spoken words and sentences, listen effectively, and recognize potential communication barriers and adjust your approach to clarify information as needed.
6. Ethical Responsibility to Self and Others: You must behave honestly and ethically by developing and demonstrating ethical and moral reasoning. You must also actively cultivate personal and academic integrity, adhere to ethical principles, and be willing to follow the rules and procedures. You must be mentally strong enough to resist peer pressure to engage in unethical behavior and encourage others to behave in honest and ethical ways
7. Reliability and Dependability: You must consistently fulfill obligations in a timely and satisfactory manner. You must also be willing to take responsibility for personal actions and performance.
8. Resilience and Adaptability: You must be able to have a strong tolerance for stressful or continually changing environments or situations. You must also be able to adapt to these changes effectively. When setbacks occur, you must have the mindset to overcome and recover. 
9. Capacity for Improvement: You must be able to have the self-awareness to recognize the importance of continuous improvement. You must then be able to set goals and work to learn new concepts and skills. You must take the time to request feedback, self-reflect on the latest knowledge, and implement the necessary changes to your life. 
10. Critical Thinking: You must use logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions, or approaches to problems.
11. Quantitative Reasoning: You must apply quantitative reasoning and appropriate mathematics to describe or explain phenomena in the natural world.
12. Scientific Inquiry: You must apply knowledge of the scientific process to integrate and synthesize information, solve problems and formulate research questions and hypotheses. You must also understand the language of the sciences well enough to explain how scientific knowledge is discovered and validated.
13. Written Communication: You must be able to convey information to others using written words and sentences effectively.
14. Living Systems: You must apply knowledge and skill in the natural sciences to solve problems related to molecular and macro systems, including biomolecules, molecules, cells, and organs.
15. Human Behavior: You must apply knowledge of the self, others, and social systems to solve problems related to the psychological, socio-cultural, and biological factors that influence health and well-being.