Personality Development – A missing outcome competency that future Doctors will need
Authors:   Al-Nafees Medical College and Hospital, Isra University, Islamabad Campus, Islamabad, Lodhi Ghulam Mustafa 
Published: November 2023

The standard competencies of PM&DC labelled as ‘seven-star doctor’ are followed in designing undergraduate curriculum in Pakistan. The curricula of medical colleges are designed to make the graduates skillful and knowledgeable. Teaching, learning and assessment is designed in this way that our MBBS graduates not only become competent physicians, but we also want to prepare them as virtuous community health promoter. Measures are adopted to develop them as critical thinkers, professionals and scholars. Moreover, it is planned to groom them in such a way that they can act as leaders and role models in health care settings. These attributes are the bare minimum requirements outlined by regulatory body. More or less, same competencies are addressed in CanMEDS competency framework. An important competency which is missed and less frequently addressed in undergraduate and post graduate curricula is “personality development”. This is the domain, which our Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) concentrated while training of his companions. The better developed personality is more successful as compared to weak personalities. We also need a physician who is competent professionally with seven star qualities, but along with that must have a personality that can cope life stresses, can manage career issues and the one, who is emotionally stable and can work efficiently in health care settings without any burnout or stress. There is prevalence of anxiety, burnout and stress in doctors all over the world as is evidenced by several studies. The literature shows that a large number of consultants reveal features of burnout even with good monthly income and reasonably low workload. Therefore prevalence of anxiety and depression along with burnout is fairly common in physicians1. Burnout is the term used for the exhaustion, fatigue and anxiety with diminished work output. It usually results from ineffectual management of chronic workplace stress2. This psychological stress, depression, anxiety, burnout and even suicidal tendency is not uncommon in medical students and physicians as mentioned in various studies3, 4. The contributing factors of stress in medical students may be cognitive overload, struggle in grasping the subjects, poor performance in assessments in spite of hard work. Therefore, it is important that these concerns are addressed right from start of the career of medical student. They need to be educated to adopt a healthy life style and attention be paid on their mental health. It can be achieved by incorporating personality development as outcome competency5. The process may start with building of healthy teacher student relationship and students are guided to stay optimistic with self-motivation. Moreover, there is need to inculcate hobbies, regular physical activities, discussion of problems and regular meditation. These measures are expected to groom their personalities as professionals who can cope with stress5. Incorporation of structured physical activity programs in undergraduate curriculum must determine the activity level and frequency that will help to maintain quality of life of medical students and prevent burnouts. It is recommended that these well-being activities incorporated in curriculum should reflect in time tables instead of leaving it to students to practice this themselves outside of medical education. The well-designed vertically integrated program in undergraduate curriculum, addressing the personality development outcome should be structured in such a way that learner is able to appreciate the importance of the personal growth. This personal growth is not only limited to self-care, physical and psychological wellbeing. It must address social, economic and job related abilities with the help of career counselling and mentoring. The medical students need to be familiar with other domains for their personal and professional growth. These may include self-analysis, psychological aspects and methods to handle change, stress and burnouts. Moreover, the management principles required to run units and organizations and informatics are also worth to learn for a successful future physician6. This personality development is not only obligatory for medical students, but it must be a continuing program for medical graduates and post graduate trainees, employed in hospital settings. The working environment of physicians is capricious in different parts of world. The physicians have to face not only job issues and long working hours, but during their practice, there is exposure to various emotional circumstances ranging from frustrations, fear and grave ailments to death. This makes them prone to anxiety and psychiatric disorders7. Occupational health of doctor is obligatory not only for physicians themselves, but also needed for better care of patients, which can be achieved through structured programs so that physicians are able to organize their thoughts during management of patients and may be equipped with psychosocial power to adapt to unexpected vicissitudes during crisis times. This will prevent negative repercussions on patient safety and care with consequent detrimental effects on health care of society 8. The top management and leadership of hospitals must recognize that doctors are human beings who experience sentiments, distress and exhaustion. This profession has high physical and intellectual demands, which are always accompanied by other stressors like extended working hours, recurrent evaluations and assessments along with career tribulations which can make the physicians prone to stress and anxiety9. The Curriculum designing and implementation is always a dynamic process and changes can be made according to needs and requirements of stake holders. Therefore, it is suggested that “the personality development” with well-defined parameters and objectives needs to be added as one of outcome competency in medical curricula, both at under graduate and post graduate level. This is expected to have positive impact on health care parameters of society. How to Cite This: Lodhi GM. Personality development – a missing outcome competency that future doctors will need. Isra Med J. 2023; 15(1): 1-2. DOI: https://DOI.org/10.55282/imj.ed63 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.