Evidence map›Paper›PMID 38664702›Full record

ArticleBMC medical education2024

Big five personality traits of medical students and workplace performance in the final clerkship year using an EPA framework.

Harm Peters, Amelie Garbe, Simon M Breil, Sebastian Oberst, Susanne Selch, Ylva Holzhausen

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in BMC medical education, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
5citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
2.2field-weighted citation impact, top 13% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

5 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 4 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Article
  3. Observational
  4. Article
  5. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.

Harm PetersDieter Scheffner Center for Medical Education and Educational Research, Deans´Office of Study Affairs, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Campus Charité Mitte, Charitéplatz 1, 10117, Berlin, Germany. harm.peters@charite.de.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1441-7512
Amelie GarbeDieter Scheffner Center for Medical Education and Educational Research, Deans´Office of Study Affairs, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Campus Charité Mitte, Charitéplatz 1, 10117, Berlin, Germany.
Simon M BreilInstitute for Psychology, University of Münster, Münster, Germany.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5583-3884
Sebastian OberstDieter Scheffner Center for Medical Education and Educational Research, Deans´Office of Study Affairs, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Campus Charité Mitte, Charitéplatz 1, 10117, Berlin, Germany.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1388-2749
Susanne SelchDepartment of General Practice and Primary Care, University Medical Center Hamburg- Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.
Ylva HolzhausenDieter Scheffner Center for Medical Education and Educational Research, Deans´Office of Study Affairs, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Campus Charité Mitte, Charitéplatz 1, 10117, Berlin, Germany.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8710-8257
Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin · DEUniversität Hamburg · DEUniversity of Münster · DE

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundThe qualities of trainees play a key role in entrustment decisions by clinical supervisors for the assignments of professional tasks and levels of supervision. A recent body of qualitative research has shown that in addition to knowledge and skills, a number of personality traits are relevant in the workplace; however, the relevance of these traits has not been investigated empirically. The aim of this study was to analyse the workplace performance of final-year medical students using an Entrustable Professional Activity (EPA) framework in relation to their personality traits.

methodsMedical students at the end of their final clerkship year were invited to participate in an online survey-based, cross-sectional field study. In the survey, the workplace performance was captured using a framework consisting of levels of experienced supervision and a defined set of 12 end-of-undergraduate medical training EPAs. The Big Five personality traits (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness) of the participating medical students were measured using the Big Five Inventory-SOEP (BFI-S), which consists of 15 items that are rated on a seven-point Likert scale. The data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics.

resultsThe study included 880 final-year medical students (mean age: 27.2 years, SD = 3.0; 65% female). The levels of supervision under which the final-year clerkship students carried out the EPAs varied considerably. Significant correlations were found between the levels of experienced supervision and all Big Five dimensions The correlations with the dimensions of extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness and openness were positive, and that for the neuroticism dimension was negative (range r = 0.17 to r = - 0.23). Multiple regression analyses showed that the combination of the Big Five personality traits accounted for 0.8-7.5% of the variance in supervision levels on individual EPAs.

conclusionsUsing the BFI-S, we found that the levels of supervision on a set of end-of-undergraduate medical training EPAs were related to the personality traits of final-year medical students. The results of this study confirm the existing body of research on the role of conscientiousness and extraversion in entrustment decision-making and, in particular, add the personality trait of neuroticism as a new and relevant trainee quality to be considered.

Indexed as

Clinical ClerkshipPersonalityStudents, MedicalWorkplaceAdultClinical CompetenceCross-Sectional StudiesEducation, Medical, UndergraduateFemaleHumansMalePersonality InventorySurveys and QuestionnairesYoung AdultBig fiveEntrustable professional activitiesPersonality traitsWorkplace performance

Identifiers

PMID38664702
PMCPMC11044476
OpenAlexW4395464677

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.