Med Student Personality Types Q&A: What Are Your Goals as a Future Physician?

This post features medical students with different personality types and different religious/spiritual backgrounds, and their responses to the following:

Discuss your goals as a future physician. Elaborate on WHY you have those goals.

I would like to get into EM. I love the idea that anything could happen, I like the patient demographic (peds to geriatrics, men and women) and the case demographic (procedural and medical). Hopefully one day teach new aspiring EM students down the road. I was an EMT and I really enjoyed it. I always find that I perform best during times of pressure and when I am under stress. I have trouble being engaged in things when I am not being pushed. My family and friends call me an adrenaline junkie. Managing things when "stuff hits the fan" is very appealing to me. When others get into a panic I usually hone in and find myself in the zone.

-ENTP

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As a future physician I hope to emanate the things I learned from the physicians I worked with in oncology. I hope to be a good listener and to show an immense amount of care and empathy to my patients. One thing I learned from working in pediatrics is that the mother/father always know their child best. Regardless of how much the physician thinks he knows; it is important to never neglect the mother’s intuition and feelings. With this in mind, that will be one of my top priorities working in pediatrics.

-ESFP

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Wow the answer to this could be quite long, but I will keep it brief and only touch on general concepts rather than specifics. My overarching goal is to provide patients a chance to reach healing whether by allopathic, naturopathic, or supernatural means. I want them to encounter God the healer and know His great love for them, and that His identity is the truth of what He wants for each of us. How this looks as a practicing physician is still being worked out in my own mind and plans. I have these goals because I have encountered Him through this in my own life and am still walking out the completion of it. But I have tasted and want to share His goodness with others. My relationship with Him is the total drive for these goals. They are what I feel He has called me to.

-ISFJ

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My goal is to be a physician who glorifies God in my work by tending to the physical, spiritual, and psychological needs of my patients, serving them with the unconditional love that He calls us to have. My devotion to Christ eventually led me to develop the understanding that the optimal way to heal someone in need is to tend to their health holistically, by addressing their spiritual, physical, and psychological needs. This led me to start a website and YouTube channel called Doctors for Christ, where I could create a platform for teaching how doctors as well as anyone outside the medical field can care for their health holistically through addressing spiritual, physical, and psychological health needs. Ultimately, my goal is to support the work God is doing to bring healing and restoration.

-INTJ

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The biggest goal I have as a physician is to be of help to my underserved community. My hometown isn’t known for the best healthcare and that results in people going out of town to find adequate assistance. This can have a negative effect on their health because it can take longer to get a referral to another doctor (especially in a bigger city) which would be a longer time of them suffering with their symptoms. I want to make a difference. I want the people of my community to feel comfortable going to a doctor in their town. I want to change people’s perspective of healthcare.

-ESTJ

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One of my goals as a future physician is to continue to learn new perspectives and empathize with my patients regardless of their background. As Christian doctors, I feel that we have a duty to fulfill to our patients. For ethical reasons, this duty might not necessarily be to spread the Gospel directly to our patients. Rather, I think our duty is to approach every single patient with love, respect, and understanding. This is something that we learn early on in our medical training. It is something that we will continue to improve upon as we enter clerkships, and we will use it for the entirety of our careers and lives. This is an important goal for me because I want to be an effective physician, but I want to do so with God at the center. I want every single decision that I make and action that I take to be something that will glorify His Name. With this in mind and the self-reminder to always keep communication open with God through prayer and self-reflection, I endeavor to fulfill God’s plan for me as a future doctor to the greatest capacity.

-ENFJ

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I want to alleviate disparities we have in healthcare from racial and cultural differences by being that more universally relatable physician. I love learning about other cultures, other languages, and differences with other people. I want to integrate from their approaches to healthcare.

I want to help make healthcare services more financially manageable and less stressful for people. I want to see more transparency in the service people request and less entitlement. I want to see people working with their physicians to change their lifestyles and better take care of themselves.

-ESFJ

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honestly i havent really set any big goals yet because im trying to take it one day at a time and when i do set those goals i end up putting extra pressure on myself. i havent even decided what residency i want to go into yet. all i know is that, God has brought me this far and he will continue to see me through so im trusting Him on my Journey and cant wait to see where and how far He takes me

-ESTP

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I'm not sure what I want to specialize in, just that I want to find a field that will allow me to serve underserved areas. Jesus always preached about serving and loving the marginalized, and a big part of that is their health. -INTP

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