Student Profile: Medical Leadership

Nicole Cabbad SOM/MED '11
Joint Degree Student

When I was applying to medical school, I was considering going into an MD/MBA program. When I learned about the MD/MBA joint degree program at Yale and all the things about SOM that were so unique and well-positioned for what I was interested in, I became very excited about Yale.

One thing that has surprised me at SOM is how much I've learned about my personal leadership style. I expected to come in and learn about accounting and all of those hard skills, but taking the Managing Groups and Teams course and finding out about my personality type, my leadership style, and how to effectively lead a group of people when there are different personalities, I hadn't expected that at all.

We have a really close community. In our class you can feel comfortable going up and talking to anybody. I think the great thing about SOM students is that everyone brings something to the table. It's not your typical, cookie-cutter school. The professors are also very accessible and willing to help.

My medical school classmates often ask me "How are you liking business school?" And I love it. I think it's been fantastic. I think it's been one of the best decisions for me in my personal development and in my career development. Most people who go through medical school come straight out of college, go into medical school, go into residency, and become practicing physicians. A lot of people have said that, in medicine, because you operate under a hierarchy, you don't learn as much on the leadership front. Many heads of departments now go back to get their MBAs, because if you're the head of a department, you're deciding salaries, you're making management decisions. You're pretty much running a business. Business school just opens up your mind and your possibilities.

Interviewed on March 29, 2010.