A Personal Touch

Hunziker’s interests in personality types and effective communication aligned when she was grouped with Volino and two other researchers—Dr. Mary Klein of Texas

Tech University and Dr. Mariette Sourial of Palm Beach Atlantic University—in a brainstorming breakout room during an AACP Laboratory Instructors SIG research-focused webinar. They realized that they all teach and assess communication in some capacity within their programs and decided to collaborate on a project—a look at the impact of student personality types on communication skills during patient interactions.

“When we started talking about it, we were thinking, there are different types of learners in our schools. Do they perform differently based on the way they communicate, how they approach situations, or their personality?” Volino said. “Are they introverted? Are they extroverted? Does that make them a better communicator? Does it impact their assessments? That led us down the path of, ‘Wow, I’d be really curious to see if there’s actually any correlation.’”

Hunziker and her co-researchers had 50 third-year student pharmacists among four colleges and schools of pharmacy complete a self-assessment survey surrounding their perception of their communication skills, including the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. The Myers-Briggs test gives each self-seeker four codes of personality, out of 16 possibilities, that stand for introvert or extrovert, intuitive or sensory, thinking or feeling, judging or perceiving. Take the ENTP, for example, an inspiring visionary who has brilliant ideas, but may not always finish them. Or the INFJ, the conscientious creative who champions others. They then compared different personality types with how students actually performed on a high-stakes, communication-based assessment of patient counseling.

“What was interesting,” Hunziker said of the results she and her team gathered, “was that a question on the survey asked students if they felt their personality traits affect their ability to communicate with patients, and 92 percent said yes. I thought it was pretty insightful that they understand that piece.” Students had an opportunity to note any factors of why or how personality traits can impact communication. The most common responses were empathy, confidence, interpersonal connection and personality type. Empathy and interpersonal connection were most often noted as the traits that impact patient communication in students who have the Myers-Briggs feeling subtype. And for students with extrovert personality types, confidence in initiating patient communication was the most common factor noted, which was not surprising.

The study confirmed for Volino what he would like his students to know: “Just because you are not an extrovert doesn’t mean you can’t be a good healthcare provider and deliver information to patients,” he said. “Sixty-four percent of our subtype was introverted, but when you look at the general population of the United States, it’s about 50/50 extrovert and introvert. We have students who have feeling as a top area, which could be good for patient care because they can offer empathy and will want to understand what patients are going through.”

Such revelations contradict stereotypes. Some students accept the generalization that extroverts are good with people, so extroverts will make good pharmacists who can communicate effectively. In many cases that may be true, but the study results reveal that introverts can do it, too. “I think this gives confidence to those students to say, You know what? You can do this. We have many people out there who are introverts and they are communicating and providing care, and they are doing very well at it,” Volino said.

Introverts in the study also scored slightly higher than extroverts on how they performed during the patient counseling assessment. Faculty used a global communication rubric to formally assess students at each institution, rating different categories of their overall communication: verbal expression; mechanics and content; nonverbal communication; interactions with the patient; and organization and logic of their encounter. The results were blinded. Overall, the introverted personality subtypes performed on average at least one point higher (maximum score of 15 points on the rubric) than those with extroverted personality subtypes. “So, that kind of supports the conclusion we made about the introvert subtype potentially performing a little bit better with patient communication,” said Hunziker, acknowledging that further investigation into these attributes would be needed to fully apprise student pharmacist communication skills.

Hunziker believes that knowing personality types helps shape the learning experience for students. “Everyone has different learning styles and different needs. Personality type can contribute to that,” she said. “As educators, being aware of those things is really helpful to tailor the teaching experience.”

Understanding personality types also helps students learn about themselves and their peers to see how they can complement each other in a pharmacy setting. During rotations, Volino has his students identify their five main strengths, then recognize the strengths of their partners. “Part of that is figuring out who you are working with and how they work. How do you identify those individuals around you and how can you work with them, rather than just focusing only on you,” Volino said. “It means thinking about others and how you can work together to highlight strengths and create a well-balanced team.”

Thinking more broadly, Volino pointed out that awareness of personality traits can reach beyond education to practice, as learners begin to observe the different backgrounds that they may encounter with their patients. Students need to learn how to interact with different audiences to prepare for the range of experiences they will have as pharmacists. “Patients don’t come in only having high blood pressure. They present with multiple chronic conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol. Sometimes, English is a second language. They may have a belief in herbal remedies versus prescription medications, or there are certain therapies they may not believe in, let’s say, vaccines,” Volino said. “So, how do you interact with people who not only have different ways to communicate, but also different beliefs behind that? That’s where professional identity formation comes into play for us and for our students, in that they are not only learning who they are as pharmacists, but also how they fit into the bigger picture of healthcare and communicating with other providers and with patients.” 

Athena Ponushis is a freelance writer based in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida