Are paramedics and emergency physicians made differently?

This German based study set out to examine the personality characteristics of emergency physicians (EPs) and paramedics looking for any commonalities in people choosing to work in emergency situations, and to compare these identified personality traits to those of medical doctors (not practicing emergency medicine), and final year medical students.

Data were collected via questionnaires using a modified version of the Hamburg Personality Inventory resulting in scores relating to nervousness, extroversion, openness, resistance towards norms/control; altruism; and risk-taking.

Questionnaires were returned from 627 participants: emergency physicians (n=274); paramedics (n=245); medical doctors (n=48); and medical students (n=60). Cluster analysis was performed on data for paramedics and EPs which revealed four types of personality clusters for each group with less extreme results being noted in EPs, which may indicate increased homogeneity.

Both paramedics and EPs demonstrated characteristics particularly suitable for working in emergency medicine which were categorized within Cluster 2—’flexible crisis manager’. At the same time, ‘anxious’ personality traits emerged in Cluster 3 (‘anxious-type’) for the EPs, and Cluster 3 (‘anxious-reluctant type’) and Cluster 4 (‘incapable of action’) for the paramedics.