Exploring the temperament and character traits of rural and urban doctors.
BACKGROUND
Australia shares many dilemmas with North America regarding shortages of doctors in rural and remote locations. This preliminary study contributes to the establishment of a psychobiological profile for rural doctors by comparing temperament and character traits with an urban cohort.


OBJECTIVE
The aim was to compare the individual levels and combinations of temperament (mildly heritable and stable) and character (developmental and modifiable) traits of rural and urban general practitioners (GPs).


METHODS
Rural (n = 120) and urban (n = 94) GPs completed a demographic questionnaire and the TCI-R 140 to identify levels of the 7 basic dimensions of temperament and character. These are Novelty Seeking (NS), Harm Avoidance (HA), Reward Dependence (RD), Persistence (PS), Self-Directedness (SD), Cooperativeness (CO), and Self-Transcendence (ST).


RESULTS
Preliminary results show rural GPs were higher in the temperament traits of NS and lower in HA compared with the urban sample. All female GPs were higher in RD and CO compared with all males, and all older GPs (over 55 years) were lower in RD compared with all younger GPs.


CONCLUSIONS
This preliminary work may be the precursor to a new approach for the recruitment and retention of rural doctors through a greater awareness of personality traits conducive to the rural workforce. Further work may help inform appropriate policies to attract and retain this workforce and be a useful adjunct to the counseling of students interested in rural medicine by providing a better understanding of "what it takes" to be a rural doctor.
Eley
Diann
D
The University of Queensland, Rural Clinical School, School of Medicine, Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia. d.eley@uq.edu.au
Young
Louise
L
Przybeck
Thomas R
TR
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001007:Anxiety; D001362:Avoidance Learning; D002605:Character; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D003858:Dependency, Psychological; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010555:Personality Inventory; D010821:Physicians, Family / Q000145:classification / Q000523:psychology*; D011793:Queensland; D012201:Reward; D012309:Risk-Taking; D019035:Rural Health Services; D012737:Sex Factors; D013694:Temperament; D019037:Urban Health Services; D000078329:Workforce