Introverts make excellent nurses, too!

I don’t know about other countries, but here in Hong Kong, as part of the selection process for admitting applicants to baccalaureate programs, some universities have adopted use of admission interviews. Interestingly, I have never asked my international peers if this is done in their countries. I must do so in the future.

Nursing is a popular profession in Hong Kong with a huge number of applicants wanting to get into our programs. We admit about 180 students in each annual cohort, but there may be nine to 10 times as many applicants. Obviously, we can’t interview each one.

For a number of years, we have conducted group interviews in which approximately 10 applicants are collectively interviewed for 45 minutes and each applicant is given one minute to tell the interview panel about him or herself. The group is then given a topic to discuss on its own. There is no assigned leader, and the group just runs itself until the prescribed time is up.

As you might expect, only those who are outspoken, confident, and articulate get the higher ratings. In retrospect, the group interview process reveals some systemic biases. For example, applicants who exhibit the attributes of extroverts have a better chance of getting into the program. Extroverts are important in the nursing profession. We need leaders, change agents, advocates, and publicists in nursing. Outgoing people often fit into these categories. But we also need other kinds of nurses.

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We often say it takes all kinds (of people) to make the world. But we are only preparing certain types of nurses to look after all kinds of people. That does not sound logical to me. I have come across students who are quiet—they were fortunate to have gotten into the program—but are gentle and kind to patients. I have also come across students who are sociable and assertive but don’t necessarily connect well with people.

The profession needs introverts as much as extroverts. We need nurses who are reflective practitioners. I am not saying that extroverts do not make reflective professionals, just that we need to be more thoughtful in our admission practices to ensure that, as we recruit the next generation of nurses, we admit as diverse a group of individuals as possible. Only through diversity will we grow. It’s not unlike a gene pool, where the more diverse it is, the stronger will be succeeding generations.

Through diversity, we learn about tolerance and the value of accepting people who are different than us. Through group heterogeneity—our profession—we are stimulated not to take things for granted just because those are the norms, but to be creative in meeting the health-care needs of a diverse world.

For Reflections on Nursing Leadership (RNL), published by the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International.