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As printed in Hearing Health, volume 20:4,
Winter 2004
By Richard Carmen, Au.D.
Have you ever been to an ophthalmologist who tested
your eyes, talked with you about your problem but ironically
couldn’t look you in the eye? How about the dentist
who leaves you in the chair with your mouth wedged open
while he excuses himself to chat with a dental tool
distributor? My least favorite is arriving at the physician’s
office ten minutes early, waiting one hour to be seen,
waiting another fifteen minutes in the clinic room,
then having the doctor spend three minutes with me and
tell me I’m fine – when I wasn’t even
given a chance to tell the doctor why I was there.
Personality plays an important role in healthcare
management – both your personality and that of
your practitioner. Understanding your practitioner’s
personality and the connection with your own can lead
to improved communication. And finding healthcare providers
who are compatible with your own temperament ultimately
will resort in better care for you.
Our choice of healthcare practitioners may be based
on factors other than their bedside manner, such as
their distinguished name and reputation; the fact that
they take our particular insurance; or that they offer
a convenient location or scheduling. However, of equal
importance should be how we connect with practitioners
and how we feel when we’re in their care. Feeling
bullied, disadvantaged, manipulated, dismissed or so
frazzled you can’t even remember to ask the questions
you came for, does not necessarily mean the practitioner
is a professional dud. Those feelings may be a result
of a personality mismatch between you and your practitioner.
When you visit a healthcare practitioner, you have
certain needs, both physical and emotional. If the practitioner
is not in tune with those needs, if you feel you cannot
relate to your practitioner or if he/she makes you feel
uncomfortable, then you are probably not receiving the
best possible care. Yet, sadly, we as patients often
return to those same practitioners, perhaps out of habit
or to avoid the search for another provider. When we
do, we support their notion that they’re providing
adequate services.
Beyond Introversion vs. Extraversion
While personality has been studied for thousands of
years, perhaps famed psychoanalyst Carl G. Jung, M.D.,
said it best: “The meeting of two personalities
is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there
is any reaction, both are transformed.” Jung’s
work was the foundation for modern personality testing
such as the popular Myers-Briggs Type Indicators (MBTI),
a personality inventory developed by David Keirsey and
Marilyn Bates, and later developed further by Keirsey
alone.
Widely used by corporations, psychologists and personal
coaches, the MBTI
provides valuable insights into personality. The assessment
categorizes personalities as introverts or extraverts
and then, within that broad distinction, into four categories:
artisans, guardians, idealists and rationals, each with
an additional four subtypes (see “What’s
Your Personality Type”).
All temperaments have the potential to get along with
all other temperaments. However, some work better together
than others. These broad descriptors can assist you
in assessing the types of people with whom you might
be more compatible and those with whom you might clash
in certain situations. For example, pitting two extraverted
“Masterminds” together might make for a
wonderful debate, but a poor doctor-patient relationship.
While we often think that an extravert may get along
well with an introvert, the wrong combination may not
work. Some extraverted “Teacher” types may
overwhelm and overly dominate introverted “Composer”
types. In a healthcare setting in which the “Teacher”
is the doctor, the patient may feel shut down and incapable
of expressing personal needs. Or if the patient is the
“Teacher” type, depending on other temperament
factors, the doctor may feel oppressed, perhaps even
uncomfortable, preferring not to spend a lot of time
with such a person.
Regardless of your own personality, you may fare well
with any other personality type. If you’re experiencing
frustrations with a practitioner, this is where taking
note of personality may be helpful – seeking greater
compatibility elsewhere. But keep in mind it’s
not quite as cut and dry as judging introversion versus
extraversion since personalities are comprised of many
facets.
Though healthcare professions may be dominated by
certain types of personalities, some practitioners simply
make poor choices, going into areas they would have
been wiser to avoid. For example, an extraverted doctor
might feel greatly hampered in research, unable to find
an outlet for the extraversion, while an introverted
doctor might find it challenging to function in a private-practice
setting working directly with patients. Though most
healthcare practitioners are highly trained and skilled,
many lack the ability to relate to people and make personal
connections – basic emotional intelligence skills
that are difficult to learn in school. These internal
frustrations can eventually become apparent to patients
who might otherwise think their practitioner is simply
having a bad day or has no bedside manner. More accurately,
your practitioner may have made a bad career choice.
Your Audiologist’s Personality
In my research of personality types among audiologists
conducted in 2003, results of the 217 audiologists surveyed
revealed a prevalence of “guardians” and
“idealists,” comprising about 75 percent.
It was also fascinating to find that introversion and
extraversion among audiologists in the study was almost
exactly fifty-fifty (109 introverts; 108 extraverts).
While this would tend to suggest an even balance, the
general population is comprised of 75 percent extraverts
and 25 percent introverts. Thus, the audiologists in
the study were more introverted than the general population,
a factor you might consider in selecting an audiologist.
Audiologists may not be so different from their colleagues
in other fields of healthcare. A 20-year study completed
in 1991 of personality types among dentists found that
they are typically introverted, “thinking”
and “judging” types. In a 1997 study published
in the Journal of Dental Education, researchers Jones,
Courts, Sandow and Watson concluded that introverted
dental students performed better than their extraverted
peers on the national board examinations.
Your bottom line in considering any healthcare provider
should be: “Are my needs being met?” Your
answer to this important question can determine the
quality of care you get. If the answer is “no,”
perhaps knowing a little more about your own personality
and what you’re likely to find in theirs, can
help you make better choices among healthcare providers.
Richard Carmen, Au.D. is a member
of the Hearing Health Advisory Committee and has written
extensively in the field of hearing healthcare. He has
authored a number of books on hearing loss for consumers,
the latest: How Hearing Loss Impacts Relationships –
Motivating Your Loved One (Mar/2005). He can be reached
at rcarmen27@yahoo.com.
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