Exploring the surgical personality

Author(s):
Sier, V.Q.; Schmitz, R.F.; Schepers, A.; Vorst, J.R. van der
Published
2023
Publication type
Article / Letter to editor

Abstract

Surgery is a demanding field, requiring determination and emotional stability. This review explores the surgical personality, addressing international personality differences between surgical and non-surgical specialties. Across the globe, surgically-interested individuals (i.e., medical students, residents, surgeons) generally scored higher on conscientiousness, open mindedness, and extraversion, and lower on neuroticism compared to nonsurgically-interested contemporaries. Extraversion was inversely correlated to burnout in surgical residents and open mindedness to reduced competence in giving feedback. Although additional region- and/or country-specific research is warranted, being or becoming a surgeon appears to correlate to personality traits such as high conscientiousness and low neuroticism.(c) 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (Scottish charity number SC005317) and Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0/).

Big five personality traitsFive-factor modelSurgical personalityOCEAN model
Date issued
2023-01-25
Language
English
Publisher
ROYAL COLLEGE SURGEONS EDINBURGH
Is part of
The Surgeon (2023), Vol. 21, no. 1, p. 1-7
hdl
1887/3760032
doi
10.1016/j.surge.2022.01.008
URL
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1479666X22000269?via%3Dihub