BEING A PHYSICIAN MAY ostensibly seem like an extrovert's role. Many physicians see dozens of different patients throughout the day and work alongside other doctors and health care professionals. Introverts, on the other hand, may feel drained from prolonged social interactions. Is there a role for introverts in medicine?
In short, the answer is a resounding yes. According to the 2018 Medscape Physician Lifestyle and Happiness Report, which surveyed more than 15,000 physicians in 29 specialties, 35 percent of physicians said that they leaned toward being introverted.
In fact, the skills introverts possess can become powerful assets during premedical studies, medical school and beyond.
Susan Cain, the author of "Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking," states in her book that "highly sensitive people also process information about their environments – both physical and emotional – unusually deeply. They tend to notice subtleties that others miss – another person's shift in mood, say, or a lightbulb burning a touch too brightly."
However, many premed prerequisites, such as engaging in volunteer work, extracurricular activities and leadership roles, require skills associated with extroversion, including verbal communication, group work and engaging with others for ideas and inspiration. Fortunately, skill sets are not set in stone. Introverted premed students should think about professional social skills, such as conversing with a wide range of people and working together with strangers, as ones to nurture and grow, much like training their muscles for a marathon.
Any effective training requires stretching beyond one's comfort zone. To this end, premed students can set small goals each day to develop their skills, such as engaging in at least one meaningful conversation with a stranger or placing themselves in new social situations. By seeing the exercise as a low-stake challenge to learn from, rather than a chore, introverted premeds can start accumulating the skills they need to interact with a wide variety of people.
In medical school, introverts may start to feel more stretched. This is particularly true during the third year of medical school, as students rotate through different specialties and work with different teams in various settings.
However, medical training is also when introverts start to use their skills for the benefit of their patients and for themselves. For example, introverts, as experts of their own inner worlds, can stay on top of their mental health, especially in stressful situations that are virtually inevitable in medical training, such as preparing for the boards or encountering tragedies in medicine.
Introverted medical students can take advantage of their ability to self-reflect in order to create and maintain effective coping mechanisms, such as making time for one's self and engaging in energizing hobbies, and support systems, including maintaining contact with close friends, family members and mental health specialists.
Skills that introverts have will also come in handy when medical students start working with patients. One study found that when physicians elicited their patients' concerns ("So, what brings you to the clinic today?"), they interrupted the patient after a median of 11 seconds. Introverts will be able to capitalize on their skills in listening and communication to converse with patients and to respond to them with empathy.
Ultimately, students should remember that success in medicine requires skills often associated with both extroverts and introverts.
