Who are the doctors who don't get stressed at work? Check if you have the personality type

Who are the doctors who don't get stressed at work? According to this meta-analysis, the personality type to have is: extravert who is open to experience and has a deep learning style. If you are this type, congratulations! If not, read below, and be sure to check the references at the end.

The Big Five personality inventory measures personality based on 5 key traits:

1. neuroticism
2. extraversion
3. agreeableness
4. openness to experience
5. conscientiousness

There are several approaches to work (SSD):

- Surface-disorganised approach is apparently the worst, and is predicted by surface learning in medical school and by higher neuroticism scores and lower conscientiousness

- Surface-rational approach to work is predicted by strategic learning in medical school, and by less openness to experience and higher conscientiousness

- Deep approach to work is predicted by a deep approach to learning at medical school, by greater extraversion, by greater openness to experience, and by lower emotional exhaustion. This is supposed to be the best.

A deep approach to work occurs in extraverts who are open to experience and have a deep learning style. The surface-rational and surface-disorganised approaches to work are both greater in those with a surface learning style. However, a surface-disorganised approach occurs in individuals with higher neuroticism scores, in those with lower conscientiousness scores, and in those who have been stressed, whereas the surface-rational approach to work occurs in strategic learners and in those who are low in openness to experience.

A workplace climate dominated by a high workload is predicted by higher stress and emotional exhaustion measures five years earlier, and by lower openness to experience. A supportive-receptive workplace is predicted by lower stress and depersonalisation, and a higher sense of personal accomplishment when measured previously, and by a more agreeable personality.

"A critical element contributing to the stress that many conscientious doctors experience is internal". According to researchers, stress is not a characteristic of jobs but of doctors. Different doctors working in the same job being are no more similar in their stress and burnout than different doctors in different jobs.

References:

Stress, burnout and doctors' attitudes to work are determined by personality and learning style: A twelve year longitudinal study of UK medical graduates. BMC Medicine20042:29, DOI: 10.1186/1741-7015-2-29.

Physician Burnout Now A Top Concern Across the United States. Wael Barsoum.

Who blogs? Personality predictors of blogging

"Bottle-flipping" is the latest fad, see why schools are banning it - WSJ video

From WSJ: Bottle-flipping has become a worldwide phenomenon. But some schools are trying to ban the flippers:

Solving the puzzle of the periodic table - TED Education video

Solving the puzzle of the periodic table - TED Education video. View the full lesson here: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/solving-the-puzzle-of-the-periodic-table-eric-rosado

Dr Topol to med students: "When I was in medical school, the term "digital" was reserved for the rectal examination"

Here are some excerpts from the Baylor College of Medicine commencement address by Dr. Eric Topol, director of the Scripps Translational Science Institute, delivered yesterday, May 22, 2012. This should be a required reading for everyone involved in healthcare, which is basically everybody because each and every one of us will be a patient one day.

Eric Topol to medical students: "When I was in medical school, the term "digital" was reserved for the rectal examination."

"You sleep with your cell phone and prize it right up there with food and water. We have evolved to a new species of man. We are Homo distractus!"

The benefits of digital medicine are clear to Dr. Topol who shares the story of a patient he saw last week: "I asked him to put his fingers on the 2 sensors on the back of my iPhone case so I could do his electrocardiogram—ECG—that was normal. And free, by the way. Then instead of using a stethoscope to listen to his heart, I used a portable pocket-sized high-resolution ultrasound device and within a minute I could see every heart structure—the heart muscle thickness and function, the valves, the size of the 4 chambers. Why would I ever listen for lub-dub when I can see everything? I haven't used a stethoscope for over 2 years to listen to a patient's heart."

From Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) YouTube channel: 2012 Commencement Speaker, Dr. Eric Topol, spoke on May 21, 2012:



Here is Eric Topol's presentation at Health at Google:



References:

Baylor College of Medicine commencement address by Dr. Eric Topol, director of the Scripps Translational Science Institute

Comments from Twitter

Quoc-Dien Trinh, MD @qdtrinh: Makes it sound cool. “@DrVes: Dr Topol to med studs: When I was in med school, the term "digital" was reserved for the rectal examination"

What it's like to study medicine at Cambridge (video)

What is "the favorite" for medical students in the UK at the moment? Going into General Practice (at minute 2:45 of the video). They are also "very keen into going into a specialty such as pediatrics". This is a night and day difference compared to their counterparts in the U.S.



From Cambridge University YouTube channel: "At Cambridge, we offer two medicine courses - the Standard Course and the Graduate Course. With both, our aim is to educate students to become compassionate, thoughtful, skilled members - and leaders - of the medical profession.

Success in medicine requires application and hard work, both while studying and when in practice. However, it brings great rewards in terms of job satisfaction, involving as it does a combination of science and human interactions, and numerous career opportunities."

To find out more about Medicine at Cambridge, see http://study.cam.ac.uk/undergraduate/courses/medicine

Comments from Twitter:

Nick Bennett @peds_id_doc: Best medical school in the world. Seriously.

Medical School Life in Cambridge and Debrecen - @Berci compares the promotional videos http://goo.gl/BZm2w

Professor Tracks Clusters of Terrible Sport Injuries in Hope of Prevention

From the NYTimes:

Prof. Mueller almost immediately noticed a previously hidden cluster in, of all things, pole-vaulting. Several high school and college athletes each year were killed or paralyzed simply by missing the pit with the pole, falling on their heads off the landing pad, or sliding down the pole and hitting their heads on hard surfaces. Pits were soon expanded and surrounded with softer padding.

Mueller detected a strange number of paralytic accidents in organized swimming, all from relay-type dives into water that was too shallow — resulting in today’s minimum depths.


Concussion Recovery - Mayo Clinic Video

References:
Professor Tracks Ghastly Injuries in Hope of Prevention - NYTimes.com.

Current school system is failing boys - how to re-engage them in learning - TED video

At TEDxPSU, Ali Carr-Chellman pinpoints 3 reasons boys are tuning out of school in droves, and lays out her bold plan to re-engage them: bringing their culture into the classroom, with new rules that let boys be boys. The first part of the talk points to some eye-opening facts about how the current school system is failing boys.