Are there common personality traits/character qualities that make a good PA?

[Rapport]

Just wondering what you guys/girls think. I am writing my personal statement for my PA school applications and am trying to answer the question "How have you demonstrated the personality qualities and character that are ideally necessary and sought for in a future physician assistant?" I have worked with PA's with vastly different personality and character, but versions of this question keep coming up in the application process. It is my opinion that there isn't necessarily one personality type that would make a good PA.

 

Please let me know if there are common, identifiable traits that you believe necessary for a PA.

 

Thanks in advance.

[rcdavis]

Stop. Think. Amongst all those despirate personalities that you saw when working with the PAs.. Were there, underneath it all, any common traits that you could see?

Confidence? Intelligence? Stubbornness? Perseverance?curiosity? Obsessive-compulsivity? Type A? TypeB? Humility? Prideful? Narcissic? Empathetic?

There has to be SOMETHING. And that something is what we want to know if you see and have.

I think ;)

[just_me]

Think about the healthcare proider that you would want treating you and your family....what types of personality traits/qualities would you want to see in that person? How have YOU demonstrated any of these?

[Just Steve]

Tenacity may fit

[Rapport]

Thanks for the replies. For the record I work as an ER tech, and was previously an EMT-b for a year. I moved into the ER in order to work with more MD's/PA's/NP's. From what I 've seen so far .....Compassion, intelligence, intuition, an ability to identify the important/critical complaints from a sea of other complaints. The drive to finish the job, or get to the bottom of a diagnosis. It seems that a lot of the important qualities are developed with experience, as you can see they are also hard to identify concisely. Thanks again for the tips....back to writing!