Inspired by the Student BMJ:
When considering the portrayal of doctors in media (think of the average episode of ER or Grey’s Anatomy), medicine is often presented as a career at the preserve of the extrovert. At best clinicians are presented as effervescent, gregarious social butterflies, and at their worst as twisted entertainers plagued by arrogance and narcissism. Whether eager to embarrass medical students to bolster the spectacle of their ward round or adept with polished, jovial small talk, both the positive and negative portrayals of doctors fit well into the extrovert stereotype.
Medicine: an extroverted career? So why do we tend not to think of doctors as introverts; is it just that extroverted personalities are more suited to medicine? Helen Salisbury, a general practitioner who runs the communications skills course for medical students at the University of Oxford, thinks not. She meets “a variety of personality types making successful careers in medicine” and asserts that there is not “one ideal” personality for a doctor. Although introversion “could be seen as a disadvantage if taken to an extreme,” Salisbury argues that introverted students are likely to be “thoughtful and reflective about their role and relationships with patients,” a trait decidedly positive in a clinical career.
The idea that introversion can be advantageous to team-work and leadership has been gaining traction in social science research. Although introversion has never been analysed in the context of medicine, a 2011 paper identified that teams led by extroverts often performed less well than teams led by introverts, an effect that was most pronounced when employees were proactive. Although it is unclear whether this trend applies to clinical settings, it is an area which social scientists will likely be keen to investigate soon.
Recommendations for medical schools Given this, are medical schools doing enough to support their quieter students? Research published in the journal Teaching and Learning in Medicine suggests not. The authors of a 2015 paper lamented “an increasingly negative tone of language associated with introversion,” a problem they believed to be “particularly salient” because of the recent proliferation of interactive and problem-based learning techniques in medical schools. The paper recommends “simple strategies to foster the learning of introverts,” such as offering students time to reflect on their answers instead of rapid-fire questioning, and organising discussion-based teaching in a way that encourages all group members to participate.
The authors also note a “potential bias” in the evaluation of medical students’ abilities. According to the paper, introverted students may be disadvantaged by evaluation metrics that disproportionately value extroverted behaviours, such as “willingness to initiate discussion, taking the lead in a group and participation in a session”. Instead, the authors suggest giving more weight to behaviours such as “thinking before speaking, offering a synthesis of information and listening to peers before engaging”. Not only would this assess medical school performance more fairly, they argue, but it would benefit extroverted students by identifying clinically important areas to improve on.
Have your say:
Option 1- Introverts can be Successful
Option 2- Introverts will likely not Succeed
Perhaps these extroverted MedEmojis would fare better?