Importance of the big-five in the future medical specialty preference.
BMC Med Educ
; 20(1): 234, 2020 Jul 22.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-32698797
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
The most crucial decision in the physician's career after graduation is undoubtedly the choice of specialization. It is conditioned by many factors such as intellectual challenges, clinical experience, economic and social influences. The aim of this study was to determine whether personality traits affect the choice of medical specialty at the University of Osijek, Croatia.METHODS:
This cross-sectional study included a total of 407 medical students. To assess the personality traits, the IPIP Big-Five questionnaire was used.RESULTS:
There were no differences in four of the five personality traits of the Big-Five questionnaire when comparing the groups based on their specialty preference extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and emotional stability. A significant difference was found for openness to experience (intellect/imagination) trait, where students who preferred psychiatry specialties achieved the highest score, and those who chose public health specialties scored the lowest. We observed no significant effect between gender and specialty preference based on personality traits.CONCLUSIONS:
We could not attribute the differences in personality traits to specialty preference. Medical students with higher scores on agreeableness and openness (intellect/imagination) scales were more inclined to psychiatric specialties, and more conscientiousness students preferred the anesthesiology and emergency medicine specialties. Even if variations in personality traits do not exist across different specialties, many other factors influence specialty preference.Palavras-chave
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Estudantes de Medicina
/
Medicina
Tipo de estudo:
Observational_studies
/
Prevalence_studies
/
Prognostic_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Limite:
Humans
País/Região como assunto:
Europa
Idioma:
En
Ano de publicação:
2020
Tipo de documento:
Article