{Reference Type}: Journal Article
{Title}: Dissecting the surgeon's personality: cross-cultural comparisons in Western Europe.
{Author}: Sier VQ;Bisset CN;Tesselaar DAJ;Schmitz RF;Schepers A;Moug SJ;van der Vorst JR; ;
{Journal}: Colorectal Dis
{Volume}: 26
{Issue}: 6
{Year}: 2024 Jun 30
{Factor}: 3.917
{DOI}: 10.1111/codi.16993
{Abstract}: <B>OBJECTIVE: </B>The surgeon's personality contributes to variation in surgical decision-making. Previous work on surgeon personality has largely been reserved to Anglo-Saxon studies, with limited international comparisons. In this work we built upon recent work on gastrointestinal surgeon personality and aimed to detect international variations.<BR><B>METHODS: </B>Gastrointestinal surgeons from the UK and the Netherlands were invited to participate in validated personality assessments (44-item, 60-item Big Five Inventory; BFI). These encompass personality using five domains (open-mindedness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and negative emotionality) with three subtraits each. Mean differences in domain factors were calculated between surgeon and nonsurgeon populations from normative data using independent-samples t-tests, adjusted for multiple testing. The items from the 44-item and 60-item BFI were compared between UK and Dutch surgeons and classified accordingly: identical (n = 16), analogous (n = 3), comparable (n = 12).<BR><B>RESULTS: </B>UK (n = 78, 61.5% male) and Dutch (n = 280, 65% male) gastrointestinal surgeons had marked differences in the domains of open-mindedness, extraversion and agreeableness compared with national normative datasets. Moreover, although surgeons had similar levels of emotional stability, country of work influenced differences in specific BFI items. For example, Netherlands-based surgeons scored highly on questions related to sociability and organization versus UK-based surgeons who scored highly on creative imagination (p < 0.0001).<BR><B>CONCLUSIONS: </B>In a first cross-cultural setting, we identified country-specific personality differences in gastrointestinal surgeon cohorts across domain and facet levels. Given the variation between Dutch and UK surgeons, understanding country-specific data could be useful in guiding personality research in healthcare. Furthermore, we advocate that future work adopts consensus usage of the five factor model.