Personality Traits and Career Satisfaction of Health Care Professionals

K, Janis MA. Personality, cognitive flexibility, and motivation among medical professionals during covid-19 pandemic: a correlational study

The recent COVID-19 pandemic has posed unprecedented challenges to healthcare professionals worldwide, by bringing changes in both their personal and professional lives. Motivation has become a driving factor along with cognitive flexibility during such demanding situations. Little importance has been given to the personality dimension while assessing these aspects, especially in the Indian context. The principal aim of this paper is to understand the relationship between personality, cognitive flexibility, and motivation among medical professionals during the COVID-19 Pandemic. A correlational research design was used to conduct the research, and a snowball sampling technique was used to collect the data from a sample size of 204 medical professionals, consisting of 101 nurses and 103 doctors, working as frontline workers. The variables were assessed using the Neo Five-Factor Inventory, the Cognitive Flexibility Inventory, the Work Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation Questionnaire. A nonparametric test of correlation was used. The research findings revealed that among medical professionals, certain personality factors, cognitive flexibility, and motivation share a significant relationship. Cognitive flexibility and motivation were found to be significantly correlated. There was no significant difference in cognitive flexibility and motivation among doctors and nurses. There was a significant difference in neuroticism between the groups. The findings will help in gaining a clearer insight into the needs of medical professionals in India, by facilitating the development of appropriate training interventions for medical professionals to be better equipped for similar crisis situations in the future.

How Do Allied Health Professionals Construe the Role of the Remote Workforce? New Insight into Their Recruitment and Retention

Purpose

Allied health workforce recruitment and retention in remote areas is a global problem. Using case studies from the Australian allied health workforce, this paper adds new information by combining personality trait information with a detailed understanding of how the cases construe the demands of remote work, which may be useful in addressing this problem.

Methods

Four cases (two urban, two remote) are presented from a mixed methods study (n = 562), which used (1) the Temperament and Character Inventory to investigate personality traits of allied health professionals; and (2) repertory grid interviews to reveal quantitatively and qualitatively how the cases construed their Ideal work role compared with their Current and a Remote role. Cases also self-assessed their fit (‘suited’ or ‘not suited’) with remote.

Findings

Differences in the way cases construed their fit with remote work was related to prior experience. However all were satisfied with their work, perceiving their Current role as similar to their Ideal. All saw remote work as requiring generalist expertise and a reliance on relationships. Personality traits, especially Novelty Seeking and Harm Avoidance, fit with how allied health professionals perceived their role.

Conclusions

The combination of two distinct lines of investigation, illustrates what more can be revealed about allied health professional’s career choices by taking into account the fit or lack of fit between their personality tendencies, their construing of remote work and their life circumstances. Understanding the combined influence of perceptions and traits on an individual toward or away from remote work may enhance recruitment and retention internationally.

Personality Traits and Burnout Among Athletic Trainers Employed in the Collegiate Setting

CONTEXT

Burnout, a psychological state of mental weariness that occurs when work stresses become overwhelming, has frequently been documented in athletic trainers and has been hypothesized to affect professional retention. Experiences of burnout may be influenced by individual-level factors such as gender or personality, though few researchers have investigated such interactions in athletic trainers.

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the relationship between personalities, as measured by the Big Five Personality Inventory, and burnout.

DESIGN

Cross-sectional study.

SETTING

Online Web-based survey.

PATIENTS OR OTHER PARTICIPANTS

A total of 189 athletic trainers working in the collegiate setting, 65 men (34.4%) and 124 women (65.6%), with an average of 5 ± 3 years certified and 2.5 ± 2 years working in their current position.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S)

Data were collected using a Web-based survey instrument consisting of 3 sections: (1) demographics, (2) burnout survey, and (3) Big Five Personality Inventory. Likert responses for the burnout score were summed. Independent t tests, Pearson correlations, and multiple regressions were calculated to evaluate the relationships between demographics and burnout and between burnout and personality.

RESULTS

This group of athletic trainers experienced moderate burnout, regardless of gender. A weak negative correlation was present between burnout score and both agreeableness and extraversion. A weak positive correlation existed between burnout and neuroticism. These variables did not predict burnout scores; only neuroticism added significantly to the weak predictive value. Personality explained only 17.3% of the variability in burnout scores.

CONCLUSIONS

Our study confirms the findings of previous researchers highlighting moderate burnout in athletic trainers employed in the collegiate setting. We did not find that personality significantly predicted burnout, though it did account for a small amount of the variance in burnout scores. Thus, organizational-level factors may play a greater role in determining burnout in athletic trainers than individual-level factors such as personality.

Nursing a case of the blues: an examination of the role of depression in predicting job-related affective well-being in nurses

The current study explored the effect of depression, optimism, and anxiety on job-related affective well-being in 70 graduate nurses. It was predicted that depression and anxiety would have a significant negative effect on job-related affective well-being, whereas optimism would have a significant positive effect on job-related affective well-being. Questionnaires were completed online or in hard-copy forms. Results revealed that depression, optimism, and anxiety were all significantly correlated to job-related affective well-being in the expected direction, however, depression was found to be the only variable that made a significant unique contribution to the prediction of job-related affective well-being. Possible explanations for these findings are explored.

Compromise, Well-Being, and Action Behaviors in Young Adults in Career Transition

The authors surveyed 186 first-year university students and assessed their level of career compromise associated with making the transition to university. Compromise was operationalized as the discrepancy between the job characteristics of ideal and expected occupations. The authors also assessed career well-being (satisfaction, distress), action behaviors (planning, exploration), and goal adjustment (disengagement, reengagement). The authors expected compromise to be negatively associated with well-being and positively associated with action behaviors, and the relationship between compromise and the outcome variables (well-being, action behaviors) to be moderated by goal adjustment. Compromise was negatively associated with well-being, but not associated with planning or exploration, although the Compromise × Goal Adjustment interaction was significant. Disengagement and reengagement were not associated with well-being, although the Disengagement × Reengagement interaction was significant. Disengagement was associated with planning and exploration, reengagement was associated with exploration, and both interaction terms were significant.