What type of personality is a good fit for medicine?

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

LUCPM

Full Member
15+ Year Member
Joined
Jan 27, 2007
Messages
568
Reaction score
140
What type of personality is a good fit for medicine in general? Laid-back? Easy-going?

Members don't see this ad.
 
What type of personality is a good fit for medicine in general? Laid-back? Easy-going?

Whatever your personality is. Every type of personality has their place in medicine, and you can find what fits you best when you rotate.

I dunno about you bro, but I'm an Alpha.

62u6.jpg
 
What type of personality is a good fit for medicine in general? Laid-back? Easy-going?

Are we talking personality types or personal traits?

Granted doctors come from all walks of life, and what one person thinks is a good doctor may not be what another thinks.

(1) I think you must have a general interest in medicine and a curiosity in how the human body functions.
(2) I think you need to be interested in solving problems. "Investigative" if you want to go all Holland SDS.
(3) I think you need to be a caring, people-person. This one is debatable, because it's not necessarily a requirement for being a great doctor...but a likeable one, yes.
(4) I think you have to be sociable. This includes the ability to communicate effectively.
(5) I think you have to be a serious person, but not so serious you become the great, but unlikeable doctor I spoke of in answer 3.
(6) I think you have to be a person who isn't serious. (See what I did there.) You will be faced with far too much disease, death and despair to take everything seriously. If you do, you're going to burn out rather quickly.
(6) I think you have to be an independent thinker, leader and decision-maker.

I'm sure I could keep rambling, but I should really get back to studying. :laugh:
 
Members don't see this ad :)
(6) I think you have to be a person who isn't serious. (See what I did there.) You will be faced with far too much disease, death and despair to take everything seriously. If you do, you're going to burn out rather quickly.

Nice list FutureDrB. I feel like I fit the mold of all of those, but the one above will be the most tricky for me. I've heard a lot of doctors who get lost in bottles of alcohol after dealing with the death of a patient, or other bad times. I don't drink (not for religious reasons... I just feel strongly against it), but I have dealt with death many times before just fine. Over time though, I'm concerned it will all catch up to me, especially if it's MY fault. I also take things seriousley sometimes... especially if it's my fault. Time will tell I guess.

To answer the OPs question... I think you just have to love what you're getting into. A life of science means constant learning. It's exciting!! But also tiring after a while. If you love what you do, more often than not you will automatically become the type of person who fits whatever mold necessary to be successful in what you do.
 
It's a nice list, but it's definitely not entirely needed for medicine in general. Not everyone is entirely caring about people in general, or have good communication skills. Some people would rather not deal with patients on a daily basis and go into things like radiology or research.

Any personality can do well in medicine.
 
True, you're right... but I think in any field of medicine there is one universal quality someone has to have: they have to be a hard worker! At least in school... I've seen some nurses sit back doing their nails during an emergency code. :rolleyes:
 
Nice list FutureDrB. I feel like I fit the mold of all of those, but the one above will be the most tricky for me. I've heard a lot of doctors who get lost in bottles of alcohol after dealing with the death of a patient, or other bad times. I don't drink (not for religious reasons... I just feel strongly against it), but I have dealt with death many times before just fine. Over time though, I'm concerned it will all catch up to me, especially if it's MY fault. I also take things seriousley sometimes... especially if it's my fault. Time will tell I guess.

To answer the OPs question... I think you just have to love what you're getting into. A life of science means constant learning. It's exciting!! But also tiring after a while. If you love what you do, more often than not you will automatically become the type of person who fits whatever mold necessary to be successful in what you do.

Three things.

1. I don't drink either. Also not because of religious reasons, just totally against it as well. Plus, I can't intake that much liquid. :laugh: I've never understood how people can drink 16+ oz. of liquid in a sitting.

2. I can totally see how it would bother you if your patient dying was the result of something you did. So don't kill anybody! But in all seriousness, I think your concerns with it catching up with you in time are valid. However, I think you have to learn to desensitize yourself to it. I don't know how to put this properly, but "luckily" I've been faced with several deaths in my own life experience, including being the assistant "tag'r and bag'r" during my volunteer time at the hospital. I don't know if it's a good thing or not, but it just doesn't faze me anymore.

3. Lastly, the point you made about "understanding what you're getting into, a lifestyle of science and constant learning". So accurate! In fact, I dedicated a lengthy paragraph to this in my P.S. - Basically medicine isn't a career choice, rather it's a lifestyle choice.
 
Three things.

1. I don't drink either. Also not because of religious reasons, just totally against it as well. Plus, I can't intake that much liquid. :laugh: I've never understood how people can drink 16+ oz. of liquid in a sitting.

This is ok, this is only a prereq for graduate school.
 
Haha. Well, I've been through graduate school twice already. Does that mean I fail??!!

No, but I think amount of drinks a day is strongly correlated with dissertation defense success.
 
Narcissistic personality disorder (nahr-suh-siz-stik pur-suh-nal-i-tee dis-awr-der) is a personality disorder in which the individual is described as being excessively preoccupied with issues of personal adequacy, power, prestige and vanity. Narcissistic personality disorder is closely linked to self-centeredness.

sounds about right.
 
I will throw in a few thoughts here about the desensitization to death issue. I work in the funeral industry, I am not a funeral director specifically, but I have a lot to do with the retrieval and preparation of remains. The first few months, being alone with the bodies in the middle of the night left me feeling a level of paranoid that I can not describe adequately. But after a while, you adjust and really do become desensitized. You stop worrying about the zombie apocalypse starting with you and become more focused on your work.

That being said, even after years with this job, there are still things that get to me. i.e. Infants always make my eyes water a little and I feel sick to my stomach. Anyone highschool through college age really makes me stop and reflect on myself. And sometimes people die in tragic ways.

So you do learn to adapt, but I am personally proud that I have not become numb to the world after being around death 60 hours a week for the past 4 years.

I think that a "good" doctor needs to be able to be strong for the family. It doesn't do any good to go to tell the family the news if you are sobbing uncontrollably. But if you ever just stop caring, I think you've come to a place that I wouldn't want to go to.
 
I will throw in a few thoughts here about the desensitization to death issue. I work in the funeral industry, I am not a funeral director specifically, but I have a lot to do with the retrieval and preparation of remains. The first few months, being alone with the bodies in the middle of the night left me feeling a level of paranoid that I can not describe adequately. But after a while, you adjust and really do become desensitized. You stop worrying about the zombie apocalypse starting with you and become more focused on your work.

That being said, even after years with this job, there are still things that get to me. i.e. Infants always make my eyes water a little and I feel sick to my stomach. Anyone highschool through college age really makes me stop and reflect on myself. And sometimes people die in tragic ways.

So you do learn to adapt, but I am personally proud that I have not become numb to the world after being around death 60 hours a week for the past 4 years.

I think that a "good" doctor needs to be able to be strong for the family. It doesn't do any good to go to tell the family the news if you are sobbing uncontrollably. But if you ever just stop caring, I think you've come to a place that I wouldn't want to go to.

Thanks for this post; it's very informative.

I agree with the last part. I think a family wants to see controlled emotions, but they also want to see that you are affected... because if you care, it meant that their son/daughter actually meant something to you... which is important.
 
I've seriously become so jaded already. I used to be so dewey eyed and idealist and only a few months in clinical education have already taught me that being compassionate and caring is only good business practice, not good medical practice.

In that they make you a "liked" physician, but have nothing to do with being a good one and have to be thrown to the side now and then in order to do your job. The sickest patients frequently are the ones who want the treatment the least. The ability to make the healthiest 80% happy makes you popular, but the top and the bottom of the class can both treat those people roughly as well. Its the ability to treat the sickest 20% that make you an exemplary physician and *sometimes* that requires hurting your patient, motivating them to change their convictions or sedating them enough so their complaints dont shake you to the core.

Note: I'm not advocating anything that might be construed as assault or ignoring patient refusal. I'm speaking about the dual facts that the most life saving techniques are exquisitely painful to the patient and many patients will refuse treatment that can greatly increase their odds of recovering unless they are properly persuaded. sometimes that takes on a moral grey zone where the consent is gained when the patient is partially sedated or a procedure is sold with an apparently (false) dilemma. "Its this or big health problems"

And death will shake you. It will for a long time. Its different than being around dead bodies. This is knowing that someone who entrusted their life to you died and it may be directly your fault. If you're in surgery it *will* be directly your fault. Thats the nickname the IM residents call the surgeons when they bicker. Murderers. Not that they actually are, but that they know damn well that people die in their arms and it is due to their mistakes.In ever case. Even when you argue death is inevitable, unless the patient is dead before you touch them, there was always something you could have done to stave it off for a while longer. something you didnt do. It doesn't matter how well adjusted you are, unless you work in pathology you're going to run into patients that die because you didnt do enough.

I'm sorry to be so dark and morbid here, and I am *over representing* it on purpose. To make a point that all of these bright and fluffy idealistic thoughts are "good" things to have, but are absolutely not required or even core "should haves". They make you a liked doctor. but a good doctor? no.

You want to be a good doctor the personality you want is one that is never satisfied with what you know and can accomplish. Its the only way to be the physician your patients "need", regardless of what they "want". Being obsessed with perfection is a positive thing here. Perhaps another necessary quality is someone who can sacrifice. Sacrifice free time, social life, family, whatever it takes. You're serving a higher cause. If you want to stop sacrificing you also have to take your foot off the gas pedal of your career. Trying to do both at the same time is cheating your patients (though its totally fine if youre at a point where you can back off and have others fill in for you).
 
Last edited:
I've seriously become so jaded already. I used to be so dewey eyed and idealist and only a few months in clinical education have already taught me that being compassionate and caring is only good business practice, not good medical practice.

In that they make you a "liked" physician, but have nothing to do with being a good one and have to be thrown to the side now and then in order to do your job. The sickest patients frequently are the ones who want the treatment the least. The ability to make the healthiest 80% happy makes you popular, but the top and the bottom of the class can both treat those people roughly as well. Its the ability to treat the sickest 20% that make you an exemplary physician and *sometimes* that requires hurting your patient, motivating them to change their convictions or sedating them enough so their complaints dont shake you to the core.

Note: I'm not advocating anything that might be construed as assault or ignoring patient refusal. I'm speaking about the dual facts that the most life saving techniques are exquisitely painful to the patient and many patients will refuse treatment that can greatly increase their odds of recovering unless they are properly persuaded. sometimes that takes on a moral grey zone where the consent is gained when the patient is partially sedated or a procedure is sold with an apparently (false) dilemma. "Its this or big health problems"

And death will shake you. It will for a long time. Its different than being around dead bodies. This is knowing that someone who entrusted their life to you died and it may be directly your fault. If you're in surgery it *will* be directly your fault. Thats the nickname the IM residents call the surgeons when they bicker. Murderers. Not that they actually are, but that they know damn well that people die in their arms and it is due to their mistakes.In ever case. Even when you argue death is inevitable, unless the patient is dead before you touch them, there was always something you could have done to stave it off for a while longer. something you didnt do. It doesn't matter how well adjusted you are, unless you work in pathology you're going to run into patients that die because you didnt do enough.

I'm sorry to be so dark and morbid here, and I am *over representing* it on purpose. To make a point that all of these bright and fluffy idealistic thoughts are "good" things to have, but are absolutely not required or even core "should haves". They make you a liked doctor. but a good doctor? no.

You want to be a good doctor the personality you want is one that is never satisfied with what you know and can accomplish. Its the only way to be the physician your patients "need", regardless of what they "want". Being obsessed with perfection is a positive thing here. Perhaps another necessary quality is someone who can sacrifice. Sacrifice free time, social life, family, whatever it takes. You're serving a higher cause. If you want to stop sacrificing you also have to take your foot off the gas pedal of your career. Trying to do both at the same time is cheating your patients (though its totally fine if youre at a point where you can back off and have others fill in for you).

I agree with this from the raw perspective of saving as many lives as possible. However, I believe that being a physician involves treating an entire human being and not just an ailment. Any decently trained person can train heart disease, but having the personal skills to convince the patient to quit smoking or start exercising as well takes a little more.

All in all, I think we will all have separate visions of the kind of doctors we want to be, and there is bound to be endless debate on a topic such as this, but I would say DocEspana has a very insightful view on the topic.
 
You're certainly right, we're just focusing on different aspects. I'm being much more specific as to what personality is actually required vs simply nice to have. I dont want to stretch my point out too much beyond this addendum: I understand everyone wants to be a compassionate and loved doctor. Its something to aspire to. I'm just commenting that those who actually become the best physicians are the ones who make sacrifices and are strongly motivated to always be better, and the people who fail are (almost) exclusively the ones without this drive. Not that those without the quality always fail, but that those who fail always lack the quality.

But again, I was just commenting that being compassionate and patient and x, y, and z is all icing on the cake. And all of these can be done while still being motivated by success and victory. Its just that, when you want to measure what makes a good physician, actual performance, being a well liked physician, a caring physician, or a personable physician doesn't rank up there at all. It matters in your heart (and that counts), but it doesnt impact your performance positively or negatively beyond making you feel good about yourself. It's something to aspire to once you know your motivation for success is on track.

and this is coming from a guy who is squishy and soft and loves to chat at length with his patients to make them feel more comfortable. Just being reasonable and stating that its definitely far from required.
 
you're certainly right, we're just focusing on different aspects. I'm being much more specific as to what personality is actually required vs simply nice to have. I dont want to stretch my point out too much beyond this addendum: I understand everyone wants to be a compassionate and loved doctor. Its something to aspire to. I'm just commenting that those who actually become the best physicians are the ones who make sacrifices and are strongly motivated to always be better, and the people who fail are (almost) exclusively the ones without this drive. Not that those without the quality always fail, but that those who fail always lack the quality.

But again, i was just commenting that being compassionate and patient and x, y, and z is all icing on the cake. And all of these can be done while still being motivated by success and victory. Its just that, when you want to measure what makes a good physician, actual performance, being a well liked physician, a caring physician, or a personable physician doesn't rank up there at all. It matters in your heart (and that counts), but it doesnt impact your performance positively or negatively beyond making you feel good about yourself. It's something to aspire to once you know your motivation for success is on track.

And this is coming from a guy who is squishy and soft and loves to chat at length with his patients to make them feel more comfortable. Just being reasonable and stating that its definitely far from required.

+1
 
Top