Association of Personality Traits with Life and Work of Medical Students: An Integrative Review

Abstract

Background: Personality traits are the basic components of an individual’s personality. Although there are many published articles about the impact of personality traits on medical students, there is a lack of integrative reviews of existing articles. To close this gap, this review aims to summarize the impact of personality traits on medical students from two perspectives: life and work. Methods: The search was performed using the following databases: PubMed, Web of Science, Google Scholar, and EMBASE. All publications that assessed the impact of personality traits on life and work until February 2022 were selected. Results: Ninety-seven studies were included. The results suggest that personality traits could affect life performance, health outcomes, life satisfaction, the formation of doctor–patient relationships, mastery of knowledge, academic performance, and career planning. Different personality traits can have positive or negative impacts on these aspects. Conclusions: The results of this review suggest that personality traits can affect medical students’ lives and work. Therefore, based on the evaluation of the personality traits of medical students, it is necessary to design targeted courses and training for students to improve their personality traits, to bring about better results in their lives and work.

Clinical experience can compensate for inferior academic achievements in an undergraduate objective structured clinical examination

“…In the assessment of medical skills (columns (4) to (6) in Table 4), participants' gender does not play a role, and the influence of nationality and school background is less pronounced than in the overall OSCE result. Only students from the special quotas differ significantly from their peers in columns ( 4) and (5). Controlling for age and Abitur (model ( 6)) resolves this difference, and the estimate for waiting list students' score is now 6 percentage points above their NC-quota classmates.…”

“…Even if they are under-represented in exams, traits targeted with non-cognitive selection criteria (practical experiences, empathy, responsibility, confidence in patient-doctor communications and interactions) are undoubtedly crucial soft-skills required in the medical profession [4,5]. In recent years, several educational policy reforms in Germany have sought to strengthen the role of practical and social skills in medical curricula, which resulted inter alia in the passage of a national competency-based learning objective catalogue ('Nationaler Kompetenzbasierter Lernzielkatalog' (NKLM) [6,7]) and in drafts for an updated medical licensure act.…”

Exploring the mediating effect of personality traits in the relationship between entrepreneurial intentions and academic performance among students

“…The concept of personality traits has been extensively studied by psychologists, with different models proposed over the years [52][53][54]. Research has shown that personality traits can influence numerous facets of an individual's life, including academic and work performance, relationships, and health [55]. Understanding the relationship between personality traits and different outcomes can help individuals and organizations make better decisions [56].…”

The impact of attending rheumatologist’s Big Five personality traits on systemic lupus erythematosus patients’ trust in their rheumatologist: the TRUMP2-SLE project

“…Physicians' personality characteristics have been focused mainly on medical education [9,10]; in particular, the Big Five personality traits (also known as the five-factor model of personality) consisting of extraversion, agreeableness, openness, conscientiousness, and emotional stability have been examined. [11][12][13] A study examining physician personality characteristics associated with physician satisfaction ratings showed that a high level of openness, linked to imagination and intellectual curiosity, [13] was associated with greater patient satisfaction, suggesting the importance of an empathetic response and an atmosphere that easily allows for discussion. [14] Moreover, an average level, rather than overly high levels, of physician conscientiousness was associated with higher physician ratings.…”