Work

Do personality profiles among physicians correlate with their career choices?

Year: 2016

Type: article

Abstract: This article was migrated. The article was marked as recommended. PurposeWe all recognize that different types of medical doctors may have different ways to interact with patients. Here, we asked how well their personality profiles correlate with their career choice, and discuss how those personality profiles may impact on the quality of healthcare and teaching.MethodWe used Process Communication Model® (PCM) test to assess the prevalence of personality profiles among 161 medical doctors, both general practitioners and specialists, who are either in private practice or engaged in an academic career. The goal was to describe their self-assessed personality profiles and to explore whether these profiles differed according to gender, specialty choice, or private versus academic practice choice.FindingsWe found that most academic doctors envision the world predominantly through their thoughts and logic and are motivated most easily by recognition of their opinion and beliefs. On the other hand, most private practice doctors view the world through their feelings, are people-oriented, and are motivated most easily through recognition of personhood.InterpretationWe saw a clear correlation between personality traits and career choices. This leaves us with a remaining question: are the correlations indicative of causality? In other words, are trainees with certain personality traits attracted to certain specialties and practice modes, or is it the specialty environment that shapes the trainee's personality? May academic admission committees select trainees in their own image? We are firmly convinced that knowing how personalities may shape career choices, may offer deeper insights into how medical professionals communicate with their interaction partners, in particular patients and students. Likewise, we believe that such communications could be refined to the benefit of all involved when doctors of any personality types are willing to move into another person's frame of preference.

Source: MedEdPublish

DOI: 10.15694/mep.2016.000052

Authors: Lise Boussemart, Guillaume Bouzillé, Alain Boyer, Heinz Arnheiter, Alain Dupuy