Personality predictors of surgical specialties choice among students of nursing

Abstract

<b>Background</b><br /> Holland’s theory of congruence, according to which one’s career choice is an expression of personality traits common to a given profession, constitutes a theoretical background for this research. The construct of the Distinct Surgical Personality (DSP) is an exemplification of the idea of a congruent match between one’s personality and the requirements of the medical environment. In previous studies the authors revised their proposition concerning the DSP concept to include not only personality traits but also preferred values. This paper aims at verifying the proposition that this concept may also refer to students of nursing who select surgical specialties.<br /> <br /> <b>Participants and procedure</b><br /> The study involved 163 students of nursing at the Medical University of Lublin aged 21-29 (M = 23.19, SD = 3.67). Students who opted for surgical specialities constituted the criterion group (N = 98). The study employed the Polish versions of the Personality Inventory NEO-FFI and the Schwartz Value Survey.<br /> <b>Results</b><br /> There are two significant predictors of surgical specialties choice in nursing: a higher-level value of openness to change and extraversion. The tested model, which incorporates personality traits and preferred values, has proved congruent with the data, and allows for the proper classification of 79% of students who declared surgical specialties.<br /> <br /> <b>Conclusions</b><br /> The results suggest the existence of a specific personality of surgical nurses. While clear adaptability to the specific environment has been determined, there are differences with respect to the concept of DSP, referring to doctors, widely discussed in the literature. In both cases these constructs look different, and are dependent on various types of professional activities within the therapeutic team.

Relationship of big five personality traits and future specialty preference among undergraduate medical students: a cross-sectional study

“…Low levels of conscientiousness, are potential exclusion criteria in the acceptance of students to medical school [39]. A more recent finding suggests that conscientiousness positively predicted the choice of a surgical specialty in medical students [40].…”

“What matters to us”: The portrait values questionnaire to measure couple values

“…The literature focusing on values has predominantly conceptualized them as individual constructs, sometimes treating them as personality traits (e.g., Hitlin & Piliavin, 2004;Rohan, 2000;Turska et al, 2016). Various studies demonstrate the direct association between personal values and individual behaviors; for instance, values are related to prosocial (Daniel et al, 2015;Schwartz, 2010), cooperative (Sagiv et al, 2011;Schwartz, 1996) or transgressive behavior (Rosnati et al, 2014;Russo et al, 2019), but also to voting (Schwartz et al, 2010) or environmental behavior (Poortinga et al, 2004;Scopelliti et al, 2022).…”

Personal and higher-level values of pharmacy students declaring work with patients as a preferred career path – preliminary results

“…Similarly to the earlier publications [7][8][9]13], the authors stress that the approach to personality with the "big five" model (Five Factor Model, FFM) [14], which is most frequently applied in studies on personality predictors of choosing a career path in different medical professions, does not fully reflect the motives of human choices. In the model, a personality trait is understood as a predisposition to consistent thinking patterns, feelings and actions.…”