A national survey into desirable personality traits in anaesthesia trainees in a developing country.
OBJECTIVE
To explore personality traits considered to be important in selection of trainees by consultant anaesthetists in a developing country.


METHODS
A questionnaire listing 28 traits was sent to 125 consultant anaesthetists. The raters were asked to mark each trait on a scale of 1 to 10, with one being least desirable and 10 as most desirable. Listing of five most desirable and one least desirable trait was also required.


RESULTS
The response rate was 79%. The most desirable trait was identified as reliability by 40%, followed by honesty 17%, functionality under stress 9%, punctuality 7%, and discipline 4%. The least desirable trait was considered as resourcefulness (21%), sense of humour (20%), unassuming mannerism (15%), high self esteem (11%), inquisitive (5%) and expedious (5%).


CONCLUSIONS
Some traits have been identified as more desirable than others for trainees in our country. We plan to assess these in structured behavioural interviews in our residency programme.
Department of Anaesthesia, Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan.
Fauzia Anis
FA
Khan
Fauzia
F
Minai
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000776:Anesthesiology / Q000193:education* / Q000592:standards; D002983:Clinical Competence; D003906:Developing Countries; D004503:Education, Medical, Graduate / Q000592:standards; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007396:Internship and Residency / Q000592:standards; D010154:Pakistan; D010551:Personality; D010556:Personality Tests; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires