Does Your Personality Match Your Job?

I am sure most people have taken the Myers Briggs personality test or maybe even the personality test which tries to predict suitable professions.  After working only a few short months I can definitely see that certain shifts and specialties attract certain kinds of nurses.  A few weeks ago Laura Stokowski, RN, MS published a viewpoint piece seeing if personality tests should be used to help new graduates determine which field they should enter.

New graduates are expensive to train, both with regards to money and time.  After spending a great deal of resources, new graduates are expected to give back a certain amount of time to pay off their "debt".  Problems arise when new nurses leave before their commitment time is over and/or have poor job satisfaction when they are not working in a field if interest.  Personality tests could improve "job satisfaction, work-related stress, retention, turnover, and perhaps even patient outcomes."  It will be interesting to watch the research over the next few years and see if HR decides to incorporate personality testing into the new hire process.