The 4 Big Personality Traits That Will Carry You to Medical Lab Success
Laboratory technologists and technicians are the unsung heroes of the medical industry. It involves them in performing complex tests that doctors rely on for accurate diagnosing and treating. Without highly skilled lab staff, doctors could not perform their jobs. While this may sound like a recipe for accolades, it is not. Though it arguably should, none of the glory involved in diagnostics or treatment goes to the lab staff. The doctors, surgeons, and nurses are the faces of the medical care a patient receives, and therefore the also-deserving recipients of any glory to be had. Thus, altruism is the first personality trait required to succeed in a medical lab. Here are the other 3, all just as important.
Privacy and Security-Conscious
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Living in the simultaneous ages of both data breaches and working from home has made security and protecting patient privacy the top priority. It has always been important, but the common practice of password sharing has been on the rise. Password sharing is strictly prohibited but a popular practice nonetheless, used to save time and submit results faster. As a result, the industry is now looking to eliminate that possibility altogether. An industry-wide conversion to passwordless authentication would accomplish this and also remove the threat of data hijacking via keylogging, phishing attacks, and more. If you accept work in a medical lab, take security as seriously as they do. Never give your security credentials out, or accept them from anyone else.
What Holland Code and MBTI Assessments Say
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If you have not yet taken the Holland Code or Myers Briggs Type Inventory assessments, doing so could tell you if work in a medical lab suits your personality. This is useful and valuable information today’s workforce is fortunate to have access to because it is time and money saved for everyone involved. A Holland Code is a 3-letter designation representing your three strongest types, out of six categories. The designation comes from the RIASEC model developed by psychologist Dr. John Holland. Medical lab work is well-suited for those with the RIC designation (realistic, investigative, and conventional).
The MBTI is a 4-letter designation of your four strongest types, out of a possible 16. Katherine Briggs and Isabel Briggs-Myers are a mother-daughter team who developed this tool based on Carl Jung psychology, and we widely use it today. The three personality types well suited to medical lab work according to MBTI are ISTJ, ISFJ, and INTJ. Noteworthy here is that the letter I designation in all three stands for “introverted”; the letter J stands for “judging.” If you are unaware of your types, you can easily find free versions of the assessments online.
Big Picture Thinkers Need Not Apply
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Big picture thinkers are visionaries who turn ideas into action by tackling complex issues. They love to brainstorm. These are amazing qualities, and someone with them would likely be miserable in a medical lab career. The medical lab is the domain of the detail-oriented. Those who can focus for long periods of time on the infinitesimal and keep all of that minutiae organized should thrive in a medical lab environment. The fit is so natural because these detail-oriented organizers also have an almost religious appreciation for order. And what is more orderly than Science?
The outlook for the medical lab industry is positive with growth forecasted for the future. The industry needs more skilled and talented practitioners. But there’s more to consider than just those factors. Consider your emotional well being and whether or not you want to live a happy life. Every week you will probably spend over 25% of the time available in that week at work. If a happy life is what you want, finding work that is personally rewarding and fulfilling is essential. If you’re a square peg, know your specific personality traits and what’s important to you at work, and use that to find a square hole.
