To all the MBTI haters out there: points taken. If it helps you to better understand, predict the world around you, and interact with others, use it. If not, don't.
I'm INFP and in my last year of medical school. I'm super sensitive, super feeling, and super caring. I think it's unique in medicine but I think it helps me clinically and enhances my patient care. Not everyone in medicine you're going to see will be a kind face. But that holds true for every profession, including social work. "Be the change you wish to see in the world." I think that people should do what they like doing, what makes them happy overall (despite the bad days). I applied for residency in Internal Medicine. I think I want to do Primary Care. A lot of primary care is social work, which is what people hate about it, but is a part of the reason I like it.
Me too!! Why, hello!
🙂
I think our 'type' brings to medicine a very strong sense of moral obligation to do the best possible by the patient, both medically and otherwise (socially, spiritually, personally, etc.). I think we are our own worst critics, push ourselves extremely hard, but often in the service of some noble ideal and vision of betterment of the human condition. I wonder if we are extremely sensitive to burnout. My SO is an ENFP (surg resident) and we both struggle a lot with the rewards of patient care, on one hand, but the larger question of greater meaning, on the other (whether or not the daily deluges of organizational details and tasks and the 'actual work' of the profession are as profoundly meaningful as we had hoped…). We both still dream of becoming astronomers or global health experts or teachers or evolutionary biologists sometimes…
As of now, I'd say I'd pick the same path again. Ask me again next year as an intern.
For him, well into surgical subspecialty residency, I'm not so sure. Being able to offer unbelievable curative surgical treatments is awesome; his patients, their connections with him, their stories and gratitude light up his day. The extremely varied nature of his profession and the knowledge and expertise required keeps him constantly learning and interested. The surgical culture and extraordinary organizational skills required, as well as the extreme hours and utter lack of creativity that it entails most of the time often crush him.
I think he is one of the very rare -NFP types who found their way into surgery--not because they aren't good at it, but because there are so many personality and culture mismatches along the way to dissuade many of these people early on. He will be unique and great when finished, and patients adore him, but certainly has gotten pretty ground up in the process.
On one hand, medical training helps our 'types' address our weaknesses. This is good. On the other, it could potentially be suffocating. I say certainly look for the specialties within medicine that jive with at least part of who you already are; there are many choices.
The learning is absolutely NOT rote memorization if you have a keen mind and a desire to put the details together into a complex picture; to be one of the best students, you absolutely require this type of synthetic understanding. When things click, they are fascinating. How much time for love of learning remains in residency? TBD.
MBTI is a tool - nothing more, nothing less. It's useful for recognizing patterns in people, and if you're a pattern-seeking intuitive, it's fun to think about. Of course, no one should take it too seriously, but it can help you to learn more about yourself and others, especially in terms of modes of communication.
