Personality types of oncology nurses

Personality type influences the choice of occupation. The breadth of specialty areas within oncology nursing allows for divergent activities and relationships and, thus, the accommodation of different personality characteristics. This exploratory study examined personality types for a convenience sample of oncology nurses predominantly employed in hospitals. According to the personality typology defined by Carl Jung, a person demonstrates a preference among four dimensions, i.e., extraversion/introversion, sensory/intuition, thinking/feeling, and judging/perceiving. The type with the strongest self-selection for these oncology nurses was ISFJ, where feeling is introverted and perception is practical, so that helping others is both a responsibility and a pleasure. The discussion relates the personality types to Jung's theory and their impact in clinical practice. Strengths and weaknesses of each personality type are described.