Elsevier

Surgery

Volume 148, Issue 5, November 2010, Pages 901-907
Surgery

Original Communication
A comparative cross-sectional study of personality traits in internists and surgeons

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.surg.2010.03.001Get rights and content

Background

A stereotype of surgeons' personality persists in the general public and among health-care professionals. Only a few studies have attempted to describe this “surgical personality” in detail. The aim of this study was to investigate the personality traits of surgeons compared with internists and to prove the existence of a stereotype among health-care professionals concerning surgeons.

Methods

To investigate the existence of a stereotype, nursing staff members in a public tertiary referral 900-bed hospital rated the personality traits of internists and surgeons. Simultaneously, all internists and surgeons in the same hospital were asked to complete the Freiburg Personality Inventory—the most frequently used German self-report form.

Results

Three hundred and thirty-four of 543 (62%) eligible nursing staff members participated; their responses confirmed the existence of a stereotype. A total of 253 of 284 eligible doctors completed the self-report form for a response rate of 89%. Compared with the general population, internists differed in most of 12 personality domains, whereas surgeons differed in 6 of 12 personality traits. The self-assessment revealed a statistically significant excess of achievement orientation (P = .00005) and extraversion (P < .00001) among surgeons and decreased aggressiveness (P = .00012) among internists. No significant difference was found between board-certified surgeons and internists in any of the 12 personality domains.

Conclusion

This study identified a clear discrepancy between the self- and external assessment of personality but only among surgeons. This outcome provides an opportunity for surgeons to reflect on any potential lack of self-awareness and its impact on interdisciplinary patient care.

Section snippets

Methods

This study was performed in the German-speaking area of Switzerland in a public, tertiary referral, 900-bed hospital between June and September 2008. All certified nursing staff working in the Departments of Surgery and Internal Medicine in June 2008 (N = 543) were identified from the staff payroll and anonymously sent an in-house-developed questionnaire. In this questionnaire, the nurses were asked to rate both surgeons and internists concerning the same 12 personality domains analyzed in the

Response rate and demographics

Of 543 eligible certified nursing staff, a total of 334 (62%) sent back a valid questionnaire. Table I shows the demographics of the nursing staff.

Two hundred and fifty-three out of 284 eligible doctors (89%) returned the questionnaire. All 253 questionnaires could be included in further analysis, as they had less than 7 missing items and no questionnaires exceeded 1 missing item per scale. Out of 104 eligible surgeons, 96 (92%) responded; out of 180 internists, 157 (87%) responded. No

Discussion

This study confirms the existence of a strong stereotype about surgeons compared with internists among nursing staff, reflecting a negative connotation concerning surgeons. Surgeons were branded as achievement-orientated, excitable, aggressive, strained, and extraverted and lacking in social orientation, inhibitedness, and frankness. Internists mainly were characterized by social orientation. Psychometric analysis identified a “surgical personality” with more favorable traits. In comparison

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