Personality in anaesthesiologists, a systematic review of the literature

Abstract

Background: As a central part of their job, anaesthesiologists often have to perform demanding tasks under high-stakes conditions. Yet, some anaesthesiologists seem better able to deal with the demands of the profession than others.

Objectives: This review aims to answer the following questions. What are the necessary or desirable qualities of an anaesthesiologist? Which personality traits or characteristics have been found in anaesthesiologists? How does personality relate to job performance and work stress among anaesthesiologists?

Design: Systematic review of studies that examined anaesthesiologists' personality or personality characteristics. We performed our synthesis in terms of the five-factor model of personality.

Data sources: The search was conducted in the PubMed, EMBASE and Web of Science databases. Literature was included until December 2020.

Eligibility criteria: We included qualitative and quantitative studies that examined anaesthesiologists' personality; also, we included studies that focused on anaesthesiologists' stress, performance or mental health but only if these topics were examined from the perspective of personality.

Results: We included 6 qualitative and 25 quantitative articles. Synthesis of the qualitative articles revealed two classes of desirable technical and nontechnical personality characteristics. Synthesis of the quantitative articles suggested that anaesthesiologists do not essentially differ from other medical specialists. Moreover, our synthesis revealed several personality traits that predict good performance, low stress and good mental health among anaesthesiologists: lower Neuroticism, higher Extraversion, higher Openness and higher Conscientiousness.

Conclusion: Those personality traits that predict performance, stress or mental health in anaesthesiologists, also predict performance, stress or mental health in other high demand/high stakes environments (both medical and nonmedical). The ideal anaesthesiologist would be lower on Neuroticism, higher on Extraversion and higher on Conscientiousness.