title: Is personality the missing link in understanding recruitment and retention of rural general practitioners?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Little is known about the role of personality and related constructs in general practitioners' (GPs) choices of geographic location of medical practice. There is however some theory suggesting a role for personality in career decision making and some limited empirical evidence that this applies in medical career decisions.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this study is to gain insight into whether personality plays a role in GPs' decisions to work in rural areas and the length of time that they intend to remain as a rural practitioner.
  
  
  METHODS
  Samples of rural (n=372) and urban (n=100) GPs from New South Wales (Australia) completed the Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness--Five Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) and Adjective Checklist personality instruments and answered questions about demographics and rural upbringing.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Rural GPs scored, on average, more highly than urban GPs with respect to conscientiousness and agreeableness but lower on openness, which can also be taken to mean a more 'down-to-earth' personality. Personality together with age, gender, experience as a GP, time in current location and rural childhood yield an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.81 in discriminating rural from urban GPs. Among rural GPs openness (P=0.007) was positively correlated with intended longevity as a rural doctor as was nurturing (P=0.06).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Personality appears to play some role both in discriminating rural from urban GPs and in how long existing rural GPs intend to remain as rural GPs. Consideration of personality might assist in selection of individuals who will better fit the professional and social environment of rural life.
authors.affiliation: Psychology Department, Macquarie University, North Ryde, New South Wales 2109, Australia. mike.jones@mq.edu.au
authors.forename: Michael P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.forename: John S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Humphreys
authors.forename: Tahnee
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nicholson
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D002755:Choice Behavior; D005260:Female; D058005:General Practitioners / Q000600:supply & distribution*; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009517:New South Wales; D010551:Personality; D010552:Personality Assessment; D010560:Personnel Selection; D010563:Personnel Turnover; D011365:Professional Practice Location; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D019035:Rural Health Services; D012737:Sex Factors; D019037:Urban Health Services; D000078329:Workforce