Abstract
The personality traits commonly seen in abdominal surgeons remains undefined, and its potential influence on decision-making and patient outcomes underexplored. This systematic review identified studies on abdominal surgeons who had undergone validated personality testing, with assessment of decision-making and post-operative patient outcomes. The study protocol was registered on PROSPERO (University of York, UK (CRD42019151375)). MEDLINE, Embase, PsycInfo and Cochrane Library databases were searched using the keywords: surgeon; surgeon personality; outcomes. All study designs were accepted including adult visceral surgeons published in English. Five articles from 3056 abstracts met our inclusion criteria and one article was identified from hand searches with two reviewers screening studies. Bias was assessed using the Newcastle-Ottawa scale. Six studies included 386 surgeons. Studies assessing personality using the Five Factor Model (four studies, 329 surgeons) demonstrated higher levels of conscientiousness (self-discipline, thoughtfulness), extraversion (sociability, emotional expression) and openness (creative, conventional) in surgeons versus population norms. Surgeon characterisation of agreeableness and emotional stability was less clear, with studies reporting mixed results. Post-operative outcomes were reported by only one study. Further exploration of the influence of surgeon personality and its influence on decision-making is necessary to deliver patient-centred care and targeted non-technical skills training for surgeons.
Highlights
Personality is largely regarded as the “pattern of thoughts, feelings and social behaviours consistently exhibited over time . . . influencing one’s expectations, self-perception, values and attitudes” [1]
With evidence that personality influences decision-making in other fields requiring critical decisions, this review supports the need for urgent future work into defining the influence of personality on cognitive bias and complex decision-making, and consensus usage of the Five Factor Model to reduce study heterogeneity
Openness and extraversion are commonly reported in abdominal surgeons, which contradict the ‘surgeon stereotype’ of rudeness and being difficult to work with
Summary
Personality is largely regarded as the “pattern of thoughts, feelings and social behaviours consistently exhibited over time . . . influencing one’s expectations, self-perception, values and attitudes” [1]. Whilst there is clear evidence that patient personality influences post-operative outcomes [8,9,10], the study of surgeon personality, to date, has largely explored the idea of targeted recruitment to minimise attrition [11,12], with limited exploration of the role of surgeon personality on decision-making and, subsequently, patient outcomes. Such decisions may include but are not limited to: the decision
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