Type A's please explain

[phoenixsupra]

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I don't think I am a type A. I do have quite a few type A traits. I do work hard but my natural state is a bit more leisurely. I think most people in medicine are type a and I have difficulty understanding them and what they're all about. Can anyone who identifies themselves as such explain to me what this personality/lifestyle is about. I know people bitch about the Type A's a lot, probably cuz y'all are so difficult to keep up with. That's not what I'm looking for. I really would like to understand. Tell me what's good about being type A. What do you think type a means? I really think that most people are good on their own level. Basically I realize that I'll be spending much of my life around you guys and I would just like to understand better. Thanks.

 

[PMPMD]

I was wondering the same thing. Maybe Type A's don't like answering posts.

 

[tupac_don]

I don't think I am a type A. I do have quite a few type A traits. I do work hard but my natural state is a bit more leisurely. I think most people in medicine are type a and I have difficulty understanding them and what they're all about. Can anyone who identifies themselves as such explain to me what this personality/lifestyle is about. I know people bitch about the Type A's a lot, probably cuz y'all are so difficult to keep up with. That's not what I'm looking for. I really would like to understand. Tell me what's good about being type A. What do you think type a means? I really think that most people are good on their own level. Basically I realize that I'll be spending much of my life around you guys and I would just like to understand better. Thanks.

Type A's:
-driven, ambitious, competitive
-impatient, want things done
-hardworking, despise laziness
-don't accept failures, learn from them and use them to their advantage
-likely to have a heart attack
-everything is an emergency
-edgy
-hyper, outgoing, energetic
-don't like to sit down and do nothing, feel useless when not acomplishing something and don't like wasting time
-don't care too much for leisure, they'll sleep plenty when they are RIP

But not all doctors are Type A personalities, you have some very mellow doctors. If you are not type A that's ok, but you will deal with type A's in your career, fo sure.

 

[Febrifuge]

An observation: Type A students on rotation in the Emergency Department can be pretty good, but the students who excel are the laid-back, good-humored type. This is probably at least in part due to the fact that the residents and staff tend to be the laid-back type as well. Type A personalities, for whatever reason, are not much in evidence at the center where I work. Take from that whatever conclusions you will.

 

[Fro]

attendings like type a
patients hate type a
residents have mixed feelings - some like it and some hate it

 

[14022]

I think I am type A, but I don't think I am unliked because of it. Maybe my classmates secretly do not like it because I am always on top of my work and strive to go above and beyond what is expected of me. If they're laid-back and do just what is expected of them, they may look at me like I am trying to outdo them. Well guess what? I am! I want to go into a competitive specialty, and you do not get good grades and good evaluations without doing better than other students. But, by no means am I the type of person who tries to make my classmates look bad (ie, gunner). I don't pimp my classmates on rounds. I dont secretly go and look up lab and imaging results on their patients in order to bring up on rounds. I dont bring copies of articles to rounds everyday. I just try to look better by maximizing my efforts, rather than trying to undercut there's. I read on my patient's problems; I anticipate pimping questions and try to have answers for them; I learn as much as I can about my patient. I do not understand how that is bad. If it is, I am curious how all these people got into medical school if they didn't strive to be better than their peers, in an academic sense. However, I am also good humored. I enjoy my interaction with patients and my patients like me. I can answer questions when pimped and make my attending, residents, and classmates laugh at the same time. I work hard but I am not on edge.

I think the key to getting along with someone who is type a is whether or not that person expects the same from you. I am type a but i do not expect anyone else to act like that. Maybe this is why I feel I get along well with my pateints and health care team. If youre type a and you expect everyone else to be type a as well, then you have problems. Along the same lines, if youre laid-back, thats fine, but dont expect everyone around you to act the same way. As long as you accept other people despite their personality, everyone should get along just fine.

 

[phoenixsupra]

Sholes, that's exactly the sort of post I was looking for. Thanks. 🙂 The others are very helpfull too.

 

[phoenixsupra]

****Bump******

C'mon I know there's more of you type A guy's and gals out their. I want to hear from you. What do you like about being type A. What are the drawback's. Does it seem like everyone's always bashing you. Does that piss you off. What do non type A's just not get about you. Set the record straight. Let us know. 🙂

 

[Thaitanium]

Scholes,

If you have to work alongside another student who is a type A (even much so than you), do you think you will get along with that student? It seems that when Type A's have to work together, they try to outdo each other and the competitiveness really sours the relationship between the two.

Another characteristic of Type A's is that they will "run over" anyone in order to achieve their goal. I find it hard to see someone like this work well with anyone in life at all (by the way, this is not directed at Scholes).

 

[phoenixsupra]

Sholes's post was extraordinarily honest and I'm very grateful for that. There are some type A's who get along well with people and are very ambitious. They are rare but there's a few of them about. I wouldn't be to surprized if Sholes actually can deal smoothly with other type A's. Many can't, you're right about that Thaitanium.

I'm curious if there is a further breakdown of subcatagories within the "type A" class? I know that type A's differ with each other in which constellation of type a traits they embody. And some are a whole lot more pleasant than others.

I really don't want this to be a type A bashing thread. Please start another thread if you want to do that. (not aimed at you Thaitanium). One thing is clear. Many of us are just baffled by you type A folks. Help us to understand some of the things that confuse us about you. I'm sure you hear them all the time. Please give your point of view. 🙂

 

[peehdee]

when we talk about stuff like this, we're talking about general things. there are always exception to the rule. the perfect model who is type A yet gets a long with everyone. but wouldn't you say for the 'most part' type As are the stereotype?

Sholes's post was extraordinarily honest and I'm very grateful for that. There are some type A's who get along well with people and are very ambitious. They are rare but there's a few of them about. I wouldn't be to surprized if Sholes actually can deal smoothly with other type A's. Many can't, you're right about that Thaitanium.

I'm curious if there is a further breakdown of subcatagories within the "type A" class? I know that type A's differ with each other in which constellation of type a traits they embody. And some are a whole lot more pleasant than others.

I really don't want this to be a type A bashing thread. Please start another thread if you want to do that. (not aimed at you Thaitanium). One thing is clear. Many of us are just baffled by you type A folks. Help us to understand some of the things that confuse us about you. I'm sure you hear them all the time. Please give your point of view. 🙂

 

[phoenixsupra]

when we talk about stuff like this, we're talking about general things. there are always exception to the rule. the perfect model who is type A yet gets a long with everyone. but wouldn't you say for the 'most part' type As are the stereotype?

Absolutely. It's all relative. I'm not sure the "perfect model" is a type A who gets along with everyone. It can just as well be the "laid back" (type b???) person who has learned to push himself harder with the books.

In any case you gotta take these generalizations with a grain of salt. Even the most laid back med student is sort of type a relative to the general population. Many "laid back" students are practicing this lifestyle for the first time in their lives and find it hard to give up on their longstanding reputation/identity of being the best in class academically. There are also a few reformed slackers who are trying to sort of turn a new leaf and are overachieving because they have seen where the alternative leads. Many older students fall into this catagory.

But the medical field is largely polarized along these lines, ridiculous or not. And it is the root of much of the negative energy we encounter. I worked my butt off to get into medical school. And I worked just as hard on many of my medschool courses. But my personality was formed long ago in more leisurly days. Even if you are well balanced in medicine you will get flak from someone who has just been through the mill by one of their "opposites". They'll probably exagerate the aspects of your personality that they have just had trouble with. I'd like to hear from some people who feel that they are unfairly pidgeonholed as the dreaded "type A" or "gunner". What's unfair about how you feel you are seen? What annoys you about those med students who identify themselves (rightly or wrongly) as "laid back"

Anyone think there's way too much scapegoating in medschool?

 

[debvz]

Sholes's post was extraordinarily honest and I'm very grateful for that. There are some type A's who get along well with people and are very ambitious. They are rare but there's a few of them about. I wouldn't be to surprized if Sholes actually can deal smoothly with other type A's. Many can't, you're right about that Thaitanium.

I'm curious if there is a further breakdown of subcatagories within the "type A" class? I know that type A's differ with each other in which constellation of type a traits they embody. And some are a whole lot more pleasant than others.

I dont know if this can be considered a "subcategory", but i'm certainly a Type A who is an introvert. I get along pretty well with other people in the work environment, but I'm not the type that enjoys going out to socialize. This probably carries over into the hosp as well - while some ppl like to fill their "spare" time with smalltalk, i'd rather just find something else productive that needs to be done.

 

[Idiopathic]

attendings like type a
patients hate type a

I would actually reverse this, based on what I have seen.

 

[phoenixsupra]

Thanks debvz. Quite a few of my friends fit that description. I've never really considered them type A though. That's very helpful. I think I might be some unusual version of type A myself. I'm the black sheep or 'rebel' of a very type a family. I've learned to be very outgoing but I'm sort of an introvert at heart. I don't despise lazyness, rather I despise arrogance. I am very hardworking though. I love leisure and think its important to relax and reflect often. I'm something of a dreamer. But when I decide to do something I'll work on it as relentlessly as any type a. I am definately driven and ambitious and I like open sportsmanlike competition but I really don't like being underhanded or making others feel bad. Is that type A?

 

[goooooober]

Trust me, none here is a type A because true type As would never waste their precious time responding to such a stupid thread.

 

[phoenixsupra]

Trust me, none here is a type A because true type As would never waste their precious time responding to such a stupid thread.

Ha ha. 🙂 So some people think we're all type A. You say none of us are. There's definately confusion about the issue. What's your definition of type A? Roughly how many people in your class would you say are type A. Already a couple of people answered saying that they are type A. By your account the fact that they posted necessarily means they are wrong. So which is wrong goooooober, their self assessment or your assumption. I'm leaning toward thinking that almost everyone in medschool is a varient of Type A to some extent or other. The fact that I checked to make sure I used the right number of O's when typing your screen name seems to be a type A trait. Really, we all use this label but it seems we're not so sure of exactly what it means or who it applies to.

BTW I had wondered myself if wasting time on this website sort of excluded type A's from the mix. But take a look around, there's a fair few A's here. Obviously many type A's just use this forum for study tips and consider non academic threads stupid. You think this thread is stupid so maybe you're one of those. But you posted so aren't you proving yourself wrong then. If you answer this could you give your defination/description (a brief one would be fine) You seem to have an interesting point. Would you mind fleshing it out a bit? 🙂