The impact of personality character on choosing the medical specialty among medical students in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Background: As the emerging number of medical students globally and in Saudi Arabia is rising each year, personality characteristics and their association with the specialty of choice for medical students have not been still completely studied. Objectives: This study aimed to assess the impact of personality characteristics of medical students on choosing their medical specialty. Material and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted across multiple medical universities in Saudi Arabia from October 2021 to June 2022. All adult medical students studying at medical universities in Saudi Arabia were included. A self-administered google forum survey was distributed to medical students through different social media platforms (WhatsApp university groups, Twitter, and Telegram). A minimum sample size of 377 was calculated. We assessed the participants' personalities using The Big Five inventory, which is the most commonly used scale across different countries to examine normal adult personality traits; it consists of five personality dimensions which are: extraversion which refers to social tendency, conscientiousness refers to being oriented, openness refers to the tendency of curiosity, and neuroticism referring to the tendency to be anxious and feel negative emotions. Results: Findings indicate that among 15 included specialties, choosing orthopedic surgery was significantly associated with the highest mean scores in extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. Furthermore, choosing Ear, Nose, Throat (ENT) and orthopedic surgery were significantly associated with the highest openness scores. Conclusion: This study has shown that each personality trait seems to be attracted to different medical specialties. So, identifying personality traits might be helpful for medical students to decide on the best future medical specialty that suits their personality and characteristics.