Personality Profile and Coping Resources of Family Medicine Vocational Trainees at the University of Limpopo; South Africa

ABSTRACT

Background: Doctors are exposed to various stress factors in their personal and family lives; as well as in the workplace. Stress inherent to the responsibilities and challenges of the medical field may become a health hazard and threaten the well-being of the medical practitioner. Methods: The aim of this study was to investigate the personality traits and coping resources that contribute to the wellbeing of medical practitioners. A cross-sectional study of 44 out of 45 (98response rate) family medicine vocational trainees at the Medical University of Southern Africa (now known as the University of Limpopo) was conducted. A biographic questionnaire was utilised to obtain specific information regarding the participants. The principal researcher used the Coping Resources Inventory (CRI) questionnaire to assess coping resources; and the 16PF personality analysis (16PF) to establish a personality profile of the participants. Results: The majority of participants (81.8) indicated that they mainly experienced work-related stress. Thirty-two participants (72.72) self-medicated. Fourteen participants (31.81) claimed to experience burn-out and twenty (45.45) reported fatigue. In terms of their coping resources; 24 male participants (54.54) did not cope socially (p . 0.008) and eight (18.18) also did not cope physically (p . 0.024). Conclusions: The medical practitioners had a universal personality profile. They lacked insight regarding the symptoms they were experiencing that warranted management; e.g. depression and anxiety. The medical practitioners in this study did not utilise their social and physical coping resources optimally and reported poor help-seeking behaviour