The impact of personality traits on clinical practice

Abstract

Background. In terms of personality, medical challenges consist in a wide spectrum of interindividual differences which impose a high level of creativity in order to face and overpass these daily challenges. Thus, clinical communication was proven to be strongly related to creativity. Aim. The aim of this study was to compare personality traits in both medical students and young residents. Material and methods. We performed a correlational, cross-sectional study on residents and students from clinical years (years IV to VI) of “George Emil Palade” University of Medicine, Pharmacy, Sciences and Technology, Targu Mures between July 2021 and December 2021, who agreed to answer both BWAS and DECAS scales in order to assess their creativity and personality traits. Results. In terms of residents, we found a significant positive correlation between Openness and Extraversion (r = 0.6742, p < 0.0001), a negative correlation between Openness and Agreeability (r = -0.4601, p = 0.0138), a negative correlation with Agreeability (r = -0.4088, p = 0.0308) and a significant positive correlation between Conscientiousness and BWAS revised Scale (r = 0.4192, p = 0.0264). Contrariwise, we observed a negative significant correlation between Agreeability and Creativity since we found negative correlations between Agreeability and both BWAS Original Scale (r = -0.4132, p = 0.0289), and BWAS Revised Scale (r = -0.4637, p = 0.0129). For the students from the clinical years we observed a significant negative correlation with both Conscientiousness (r = -0.2681, p=0.0401) and Agreeability (r = -0.3883, p=0.0024) in term of Extraversion, a negative correlation with Extraversion (r = -0.2681, p=0.0401) and a significant positive correlation between Openness and BWAS revised Scale (r = 0.2803, p = 0.0315). We found a significant difference for BWAS original scale, p < 0.0001 and for BWAS revised scale, p < 0.0001, and extraversion, p = 0.0130, suggesting that students express a higher creativity level when compared to residents. Conclusions. Personality traits and communication skills in health-care providers represent two mandatory conditions for an effective doctor-patient relationship. Our study revealed a higher BWAS scores in students suggesting that students have a higher creativity level when compared to residents. In addition, our study suggests that residents with increased Openness might associate a higher level of Extraversion and a lower level of Agreeability. We also noticed that students with an increased level of Openness seem to be more creative.

Keywords

• personality traits
• clinical practice
• residents
• students from clinical years