Predicting physician assistant students' professionalism by personality attributes

The purpose of this study is to determine whether personality characteristics, both positive and negative, predict the level of professionalism in physician assistant (PA) students.

Both the Millon College Counseling Inventory (MCCI) and a physician assistant professionalism scale (PA Professional Scale) were administered to 82 PA students in 5 multiple years at University of Detroit Mercy, a private-university PA program with an end point of a master's degree. Cluster analysis determined natural groupings of healthy and unhealthy personality characteristics, and the two personality clusters were compared to each of 15 professionalism parameters. Significant correlations were determined using a two-tailed Pearson correlation.

The "healthy" personality clusters characterized by conscientiousness and outward directedness were significantly predictive for the professionalism attributes of taking full responsibility for self, volunteering for others, dressing professionally, punctuality, participating in class, ability to give and receive criticism, and seeking out new challenges. The "unhealthy" cluster was negatively correlated to taking full responsibility, volunteerism, trustworthiness, dressing professionally, being punctual, giving and receiving criticism, and taking on new challenges.

Healthy personality characteristics do predict high levels of self-reported professionalism according to this study. Conversely, unhealthy personality characteristics will predict a low level of self-reported professionalism. Personality profiles can be incorporated into the admission process to select a higher percentage of candidates who value and emulate professionalism, producing better practitioners.