High levels of emotional intelligence are needed in our field. In no other job would one have to tell a 50-year-old woman her husband had been shot in the head by a disgruntled employee, and the next moment greet with a smile a mother and her three urchins who all have a viral upper respiratory infection. More than any other specialty, I believe that emergency physicians need to strike a balance in these five areas while tending toward certain traits.

I would say that the average emergency physician tends to be inventive, efficient, energetic, friendly, and confident. An extreme of any one of these traits, however, could lead to problems. Overly compassionate doctors will burn out if they cry everyone’s tears. Overly outgoing doctors may be perceived as too flamboyant and unprofessional. Overly organized people may lack flexibility.

I believe that tending toward these above five traits probably makes for a better emergency physician. Not all are required, of course. I tend toward introversion and seem to get along just fine (as long as people just leave me alone).

It’s safe to say that it’s best that certain personalities avoid working in the ED. Overly cautious or neurotic doctors seem to be fish out of water in the ED. People who are thin-skinned and disorganized usually end up crying in the bathroom. It’s a tragedy when doctors choose a specialty that ill-fits their personality.

If it were not for the possibility of being labeled as the “crazy program,” I still think it would be a good idea to have more objective information about personality. Whether the candidates realize it or not, we make a judgment about their personalities during the interview process. I would rather have more objective information.

Deciding on a specialty is a difficult decision. Sometime during their 1-month rotation in our ED, I usually raise the issue with medical students about what they want to do when they grow up. I tell them that if they feel like a stranger in a foreign land where nobody seems like them, that specialty is probably not for them. This is quite subjective as well. I believe students could use more objective information.

My timing for this proposed test may be completely off. I remember taking a career aptitude test in junior high. Maybe medical schools should administer a personality inventory at the end of the second year of medical school. This would give the candidate information about what specialties would be a good fit with their personality traits. This doesn’t mean that extremely sensitive students should not consider general surgery. It would just give them another piece of information to help them make their decision.