The effects of personality traits and other variables on the specialty choices of resident doctors

Objective: We aimed to evaluate the association between specialty choices and personality traits and other possible factors amongst resident doctors in Bursa, Turkey. Method: This cross-sectional study involved 237 resident doctors who had been placed at the Medical Specialization Examination (MSE) between 2014-1015. The data was collected with the application of a questionnaire comprised of 33 questions and the Ten-Item Personality Inventory (TIPI). Student’s t tests and Mann-Whitney U tests were used for the analysis of continuous variables, while chi-square tests were used for categorical variables. Results: We reached 76.8% (n=182) of the target population. Among the participants, 93.4% reported that they would have been willing to participate in specialized training when they were senior medical students. Current specialization was the first choice in the exam for 57.4% of the participants. Top three reasons for choosing the current specialty were interest, working conditions and score at MSE. Sex, compulsory service participation and MSE scores were the variables that significantly affected internal/surgical specialty choices. After conducting the analysis for the top five specialties, internal medicine residents were found to be less open to new experiences (p=0.021). Conclusion: It has been shown that sex, compulsory service participation and MSE scores primarily affect internal/surgical specialty choices. Additionally, internal medicine residents’ personalities were less open to experiences. We believe that our results can be a guide for future studies.