Would my personality fit emergency medicine?

[tabula0rasa]

I am currently debating various career options and I would like some opinion as to whether my personality would do well in the ER:
I consider myself hard working (I did not grow up privileged and have been used to working hard since I was teenager) and I can handle hard situations. However, I find that I am not as gregarious as many of my classmates. I guess I would consider myself more of the "strong silent" type. I'm not shy, just not very talkative. I'm generally a nice guy and will open up to friends I can trust. I have no problem talking to patients (sympathetic nods, etc. etc.), but I don't make small talk with them. I have a sense of humor, but I don't joke with patients because I'm afraid I might offend them.
Anyway, the reason I'm wondering this is because I've heard that ER doctors need to gain patients' trust in a very short amount of time. Do you think making small talk and joking with patients are necessary for building such a trust? If so, could such aspects be trainable in your opinion?

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[vtucci]

Okay, I'll bite. Keep in mind this answer is coming from an MSIV (albeit a non-trad and older student).... But the short answer to your question is YES!! There is absolutely a place for you in EM if you want to be here.

I know that EM has a stereotypical personality of the outgoing, somewhat aggressive and ADD, has a lot of outside interests but can absolutely handle (if not thrive on) pressure and is a crisis manager. Some of this perception is from our colleagues in other fields and sometimes these attributes can be cast in a negative light (i.e., outside interests precluding depth of knowledge and ability). There are no doubt physicians in EM who fit the stereotypical mold. IMHO, however, I think one of the best aspects of EM is that our field accepts a wide range of personalities. Perhaps the widest range of accepted personality types in any field of medicine.

Walk into almost any ED in the country and you will likely find the crazy, wacky attending who definitely walks to the beat of a different kind of drum, the cerebral attending who is capable of pulling random figures and facts from the latest EBM article out of their butt, the laid-back attending who is quiet and efficient on shift and goes out bar-hopping with the residents, the outdoorsman/woman who has a boat or vacation home in some fantastic location, the extremely hyper attending who is addicted to their own personal source of caffeine and talks a mile a minute and juggles endless charts simultaneously. These are just a few examples and some physicians can even flip between different personality types depending on the day or even within the shift. never a dull moment.

You do not have to engage in small talk in the negative sense of that concept. Yes EM docs do need to establish a rapport quicker than a primary care doc but I think the best way of doing this is to be yourself and be genuinely interested in the patient. For the icebreakers and history taking techniques, you can learn these techniques in medical school and if you really are concerned about it, I would find a mentor whose personality is different from yours (maybe more outgoing or gregarious) and watch them work. Shadow them and see how they establish a rapport in different situations. I am a firm believer of having many mentors in my field. I choose mentors who are different from me and who can help me develop skills in an area I want to improve.

Also, humor when appropriate can be helpful in establishing trust but as the OP noted can be detrimental if off-color or ill-perceived. Medicine relies on our ability to read people. Sometimes humor is a great tool but if you are not comfortable with it, there are other ways to establish trust with the patient that are just as valid. Consider also that sometimes humor in the ED is a defense mechanism for physicians dealing with truly horrific circumstances.

Good luck in your future endeavors. If you decide to join us, you will be surrounded by some of the best and most interesting people in medicine (both as colleagues and as patients).

 

[AmoryBlaine]

1. There is no emergency medicine personality. If you like the medicine and don't mind the work go into it. The people who talk about an emergency medicine personality are those for whom it is an integral part of their own self-image.

2. There is no reason to think that emergency docs are any better at establishing rapport or do it any more quickly than any other physicians. The first problem with this disordered way of thinking is that it assigns to our field a skill which is not specific to it. The second problem with this way of thinking is that many EM docs, even some of those that are considered to be very good, have poor-to-average bedside manner. It also seems to imply that other fields somehow take hours to days to weeks to "establish rapport" which is a totally silly thing to say.

 

[tabula0rasa]

Thanks for the responses, its good to know that in the real world, you're judged mostly by how hard you work and not by your personality (as it is in medical school). I guess I was dwelling on this personality thing because I'm only an MS2, and I'm sure you can remember what it was like those first 2 years.

 

[Danbo1957]

Every high-presure, training-specific job draws "types" of persons in certain numbers. Not every EM doctor is _____, but many EM doctors are _____. The term personality can be a catch-all for attitude/behavior predominantly found in a specific group of people.

The hospital is no different than a high school : jocks, nerds, dweebs, kickers, hippies, goths, heads, brahs, numbnuts, tightwads, etc.

 

[LadyGrey]

I'm not the most gregarious person, either, but I think I still fit in EM. Being a good listener is an important skill that IMHO is hard to teach but that quieter people tend to have. Small talk is absolutely a learned skill for me, both the party kind and the professional kind. You do need them, but you can learn them.

I'm not sure how useful personality really is in picking a field, because different personalities click with different aspects of a field... For example, we did the MBTI in third year and two kids in my track got the same 4 letter "type" as me. One is doing ENT, one is doing rads, I'm doing EM. (Hmm, MBTI as predictor of e-ROAD tendency? ) So we are supposedly the same personality, and yet I think each of us would be very unhappy in the fields the others have chosen.

 

[roja]

I am currently debating various career options and I would like some opinion as to whether my personality would do well in the ER:
I consider myself hard working (I did not grow up privileged and have been used to working hard since I was teenager) and I can handle hard situations. However, I find that I am not as gregarious as many of my classmates. I guess I would consider myself more of the "strong silent" type. I'm not shy, just not very talkative. I'm generally a nice guy and will open up to friends I can trust. I have no problem talking to patients (sympathetic nods, etc. etc.), but I don't make small talk with them. I have a sense of humor, but I don't joke with patients because I'm afraid I might offend them.
Anyway, the reason I'm wondering this is because I've heard that ER doctors need to gain patients' trust in a very short amount of time. Do you think making small talk and joking with patients are necessary for building such a trust? If so, could such aspects be trainable in your opinion?

1. There is no emergency medicine personality. If you like the medicine and don't mind the work go into it. The people who talk about an emergency medicine personality are those for whom it is an integral part of their own self-image.

I am not chipper, overtly gregarious, etc either. It's okay. what is more important is not what your personality is, but do you love being in the ED

 

[Angelfish1]

I am currently debating various career options and I would like some opinion as to whether my personality would do well in the ER:
I consider myself hard working (I did not grow up privileged and have been used to working hard since I was teenager) and I can handle hard situations. However, I find that I am not as gregarious as many of my classmates. I guess I would consider myself more of the "strong silent" type. I'm not shy, just not very talkative. I'm generally a nice guy and will open up to friends I can trust. I have no problem talking to patients (sympathetic nods, etc. etc.), but I don't make small talk with them. I have a sense of humor, but I don't joke with patients because I'm afraid I might offend them.
Anyway, the reason I'm wondering this is because I've heard that ER doctors need to gain patients' trust in a very short amount of time. Do you think making small talk and joking with patients are necessary for building such a trust? If so, could such aspects be trainable in your opinion?

Hey, I am the same personality as you, though if I try hard I can make small talk, but not definitely as much as some of the ER docs I have worked with.
So which speciality did you end up going in? was it EM? Are you happy with it?

 

[Angelfish1]

Okay, I'll bite. Keep in mind this answer is coming from an MSIV (albeit a non-trad and older student).... But the short answer to your question is YES!! There is absolutely a place for you in EM if you want to be here.

I know that EM has a stereotypical personality of the outgoing, somewhat aggressive and ADD, has a lot of outside interests but can absolutely handle (if not thrive on) pressure and is a crisis manager. Some of this perception is from our colleagues in other fields and sometimes these attributes can be cast in a negative light (i.e., outside interests precluding depth of knowledge and ability). There are no doubt physicians in EM who fit the stereotypical mold. IMHO, however, I think one of the best aspects of EM is that our field accepts a wide range of personalities. Perhaps the widest range of accepted personality types in any field of medicine.

Walk into almost any ED in the country and you will likely find the crazy, wacky attending who definitely walks to the beat of a different kind of drum, the cerebral attending who is capable of pulling random figures and facts from the latest EBM article out of their butt, the laid-back attending who is quiet and efficient on shift and goes out bar-hopping with the residents, the outdoorsman/woman who has a boat or vacation home in some fantastic location, the extremely hyper attending who is addicted to their own personal source of caffeine and talks a mile a minute and juggles endless charts simultaneously. These are just a few examples and some physicians can even flip between different personality types depending on the day or even within the shift. never a dull moment.

You do not have to engage in small talk in the negative sense of that concept. Yes EM docs do need to establish a rapport quicker than a primary care doc but I think the best way of doing this is to be yourself and be genuinely interested in the patient. For the icebreakers and history taking techniques, you can learn these techniques in medical school and if you really are concerned about it, I would find a mentor whose personality is different from yours (maybe more outgoing or gregarious) and watch them work. Shadow them and see how they establish a rapport in different situations. I am a firm believer of having many mentors in my field. I choose mentors who are different from me and who can help me develop skills in an area I want to improve.

Also, humor when appropriate can be helpful in establishing trust but as the OP noted can be detrimental if off-color or ill-perceived. Medicine relies on our ability to read people. Sometimes humor is a great tool but if you are not comfortable with it, there are other ways to establish trust with the patient that are just as valid. Consider also that sometimes humor in the ED is a defense mechanism for physicians dealing with truly horrific circumstances.

Good luck in your future endeavors. If you decide to join us, you will be surrounded by some of the best and most interesting people in medicine (both as colleagues and as patients).

Very informative. Some people say that if you are detail oriented you should not go into EM. Is that true? e.g while reading Uworld explanations I took my time to read and learn every single word ( and ended up scoring VERY high because of that). Because I like to take my time to read every case in detail and not miss anything , does that mean I am not fit for EM? I love doing procedures and feel great when I alleviate someones misery.

 

[Angelfish1]

I'm not the most gregarious person, either, but I think I still fit in EM. Being a good listener is an important skill that IMHO is hard to teach but that quieter people tend to have. Small talk is absolutely a learned skill for me, both the party kind and the professional kind. You do need them, but you can learn them.

I'm not sure how useful personality really is in picking a field, because different personalities click with different aspects of a field... For example, we did the MBTI in third year and two kids in my track got the same 4 letter "type" as me. One is doing ENT, one is doing rads, I'm doing EM. (Hmm, MBTI as predictor of e-ROAD tendency? ) So we are supposedly the same personality, and yet I think each of us would be very unhappy in the fields the others have chosen.

Some people say that if you are detail oriented you should not go into EM. Is that true? e.g while reading Uworld explanations I took my time to read and learn every single word ( and ended up scoring VERY high because of that). Because I like to take my time to read every case in detail and not miss anything , does that mean I am not fit for EM? I love doing procedures and feel great when I alleviate someones misery. I feel happy when some one gets better because of ME! But I am at the same time VERY scared that someone may die if I do something wrong...I dont want to overlook ANYTHING. I am somewhat paranoid..not really but a little and somewhat in-decisive beacuse I dont want to make the wrong decision. Is that bad for an EM aspiring person? If so will training get rid of the in-decisiveness and detailed reading etc

 

[dotcb]

Being detail oriented - not a contraindication to EM.

Seriously? Who comes up w/ these things?

Yes, if you are obsessive about minutiae, you might be better off in neurology or medicine or peds, but in EM you have to be comfortable learning what "noise" to sort out from the big picture in order to function effectively. You can't work up every complaint, spend 30 min w/ every patient, etc. You'll need to become comfortable w/ uncertainty.

 

[The White Coat Investor]

You'll need to become comfortable w/ uncertainty.

+ 1

If you can handle this, the rotating shifts, and the scum of society, in exchange for decent money, interesting work, and a lot of time off to pursue other interests, then EM may be for you.

I'm not Mr. Social by any means, but I can certainly communicate well with patients.

 

[Birdstrike]

When I was in high school, it was my turn to get my career-choice personality-test results. The school guidance counselor called my name. He asked what career I thought was the best fit for me. I told him, "I want to be an ER doctor." I knew for sure that's what the test would show. That's what I knew I was born to be. Plus, in typical gunner fashion, I had specifically answered the test questions to skew the results to that end.

"Oh, really?" he said, with a sarcastic half-smile on his face.

"We'll, what does the test show? Does it show I'm destined to become a doctor? AnER doctor?" I asked.

"Uh, no," he chuckled. "It shows that you're destined to grow up to be a guidance counselor."