Evaluation of training and professional communication in the health sector using self-evaluation of personality traits
Joachim STURMBERG, Carmel MARTIN and Kieran LE PLASTRIER
The University of XXX offers a seminar on ‘training in professional relationships and communication in healthcare’ for fifth-year medical students. No assessment of the benefits of this seminar on interpersonal skills and competencies has been carried out. Several studies have analysed the relationship between medical students' performance and their personality traits. The Big Five Inventory (BFI) is a validated descriptive personality scale.The objective of this study was to evaluate students by analysing the variation in their BFI scores.Single-centre observational study of the before/after type conducted from 1 March 2024 to 23 June 2024. Participants in this training course completed the BFI-Fr before the session and one month after the intervention. The primary endpoint was the overall difference in scores obtained in the various personality traits for the entire study population before and after the intervention, using a Wilcoxon test.Twenty-six students were analysed. No significant difference was observed after the intervention for the personality traits ‘openness to experience’, ‘conscientiousness’, ‘agreeableness’ and “neuroticism”. However, the ‘extraversion’ trait of the study population increased by 13.7% after the intervention (p = 0.007).Personality traits can be changed, usually through long, intensive and repeated interventions over time.Here, a relatively brief intervention increases extraversion. Given the significant limitations of the study, this result should be confirmed.
