My daughter had me take a personality test that classified me as an introvert which surprised her because thinks I'm a clear extrovert. I went to med school when she was 5, so she doesn't know me from before then

(A wee thread on how emergency medicine changed me)

/1

First caveat, though: I hate personality tests and IQ tests and any other tests that attempt to define or classify the depth and breadth of a human -- introvert/extrovert, por que no los dos, amirite?

/2

Before medicine, I was a fairly bookish kid/young adult. I read a lot, didn't socialize much except with close friends, and frank could sometimes be a sensitive sullen asshole

/3

Medicine is a second career thing for me, so maybe part of the change is just age, but I genuinely think emergency medicine has changed me profoundly in a way that no other profession or career has or could. And for the most part, for the better

/4

For example, because I'm an ER doc, I'm much more decisive and calm in a crisis than I was before (for obvious reasons).

/5

EM has made me be much more extroverted than I used to be too -- have to connect with patients quickly, have to be able to talk to a wide variety of consultants, have to convince people. I interact with hundreds of people every shift.

/6

And EM has really shortened my attention span. I don't have the luxury on shift of being a deep and introspective thinker. Did you know that ER docs on shift are interrupted every 3 - 5 minutes? The amount of task switching we do is profound

/7

Atthe same time, the weight of the decisions we have to make in a matter of minutes can also be crushing. Literally life and death decisions with limited data and a condensed time-frame (there is a whole body of literature on ER docs and task switching and decision making)

/8

So when I'm done from a shift, I usually want nothing more to do than sit, not be interrupted, not interact with anyone, and make no decisions whatsoever.

/9

And away from my shift, I'm able to have some of the most profound introspection and feel emotions deeply -- of the weight of my job, of the lives I've interacted with, of the horrors I've seen, of the decisions I've made, of the mistakes I've made...

/10

So weirdly, EM has made my introspection and more deep and profound, but also taught me when I need to not introspect, to connect with others quickly and broadly, to make snap decisions, to be upbeat and cheerful in the midst of stress and chaos

/11

I love the gift I've been given to be an ER doc. I love who it's made me. I love the role I get to play in people's lives and in society, and Iove that it gives my life breadth and depth and keeps me from being easily categorized or put in little boxes

/end