Krauthausen Maike, Leutritz Tobias, Koch Martin J, Hagen Pamina E, König Sarah, Simmenroth Anne
Department of General Practice, University Hospital Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany.
Institute for Medical Teaching and Medical Education Research, University Hospital Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany.
BMC Prim Care. 2024 Dec 12;25(1):415. doi: 10.1186/s12875-024-02682-0.
The growing shortage of General Practitioners (GPs) is a Europe-wide challenge, particularly in rural areas. In Germany, the situation is worsened by an ageing workforce of GPs and insufficient training of new doctors. Many newly qualified physicians choose careers outside primary care or prefer to work part-time to balance work and family life. To address this problem, it is essential to understand the factors that influence medical students' specialty choice, and then to take action to encourage them to specialise in General Practice (GP). In addition to medical school experiences, rural placements, or characteristics of the specialty, personality traits have been shown to influence students' specialty decisions. A well-researched approach to assessing personality is the Five-Factor Model, which measures personality on the dimensions openness (to experience), conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. Using the findings about the links between students' personalities and an increased interest in a career in General Practice may be an approach to raising the number of GPs.
We aimed to examine how students' personality traits influence their interest in General Practice and their current intention to pursue General Practice as a specialty.
In March 2021, we started an ongoing online survey among medical students at the University of Würzburg and assessed cross-sectional data about the 'Big Five' personality traits and aspects of career choice. Until December 2022, we invited three cohorts of first-year beginners, and one cohort each of third-, fifth- and sixth-year students via email to participate in the survey. For statistical analysis, we performed linear regression and extended it into a path model to examine the relationship between students' personality traits, their interest in General Practice, and whether they would currently choose General Practice for their future specialty. We controlled for possible confounding effects of age, gender, and current semester by using covariates.
Higher levels of agreeableness and neuroticism predicted greater interest in GPs, whereas higher levels of conscientiousness and openness predicted less interest in GPs. The effects of extraversion were unclear. Age was a significant predictor of interest, with older age associated with greater interest in General Practice. Gender was not a significant predictor of interest in General Practice, and the results for semester were inconclusive. The interest in General Practice is a predictor of the intention to choose GP as a specialty. The personality dimensions show an indirect predictive effect on the intention to choose GP, mediated by interest in GP. In total, R² = 7.7% of the variance of the interest in GP was explained by the combination of personality dimensions and covariates.
Our study reveals that students' personality traits predict their interest in General Practice and their intention to choose it as a specialty. Personality assessments can be integrated into counselling services to help students better understand their traits. Our findings highlight the great potential of considering personality in career counselling during medical education or even the extent of admission criteria to medical school by personality-related criteria.
全科医生日益短缺是整个欧洲面临的挑战，在农村地区尤为突出。在德国，全科医生劳动力老龄化以及新医生培训不足使情况更加恶化。许多刚获得资格的医生选择初级保健以外的职业，或者更愿意兼职工作以平衡工作和家庭生活。为解决这一问题，了解影响医学生专业选择的因素至关重要，然后采取行动鼓励他们从事全科医学专业。除了医学院的经历、农村实习或专业特点外，人格特质也被证明会影响学生的专业决策。一种经过充分研究的评估人格的方法是五因素模型，该模型从开放性（体验）、尽责性、外向性、宜人性和神经质五个维度来衡量人格。利用有关学生人格与对全科医学职业兴趣增加之间联系的研究结果，可能是增加全科医生数量的一种途径。
我们旨在研究学生的人格特质如何影响他们对全科医学的兴趣以及他们目前将全科医学作为专业的意愿。
2021年3月，我们开始对维尔茨堡大学的医学生进行一项正在进行的在线调查，并评估有关“大五”人格特质和职业选择方面的横断面数据。直到2022年12月，我们通过电子邮件邀请了三个一年级新生队列，以及三年级、五年级和六年级学生各一个队列参与调查。为进行统计分析，我们进行了线性回归，并将其扩展为路径模型，以研究学生的人格特质、他们对全科医学的兴趣以及他们目前是否会选择全科医学作为未来专业之间的关系。我们通过使用协变量来控制年龄、性别和当前学期可能的混杂效应。
较高水平的宜人性和神经质预示着对全科医生有更大的兴趣，而较高水平的尽责性和开放性预示着对全科医生的兴趣较低。外向性的影响尚不清楚。年龄是兴趣的一个重要预测因素，年龄越大对全科医学的兴趣越大。性别不是对全科医学兴趣的重要预测因素，学期的结果尚无定论。对全科医学的兴趣是选择全科医学作为专业意愿的一个预测因素。人格维度通过对全科医学的兴趣介导，对选择全科医学的意愿有间接预测作用。总体而言，人格维度和协变量的组合解释了全科医学兴趣方差的7.7%。
我们的研究表明，学生的人格特质预测了他们对全科医学的兴趣以及他们选择其作为专业的意愿。人格评估可以纳入咨询服务，以帮助学生更好地了解自己的特质。我们的研究结果凸显了在医学教育期间的职业咨询中考虑人格，甚至根据与人格相关的标准制定医学院录取标准的巨大潜力。
