Concerned that my "type B" personality won't cut it!

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Hi everyone,

So I'm a type B personality. I worked as an aide at a long term care facility for adults with DD, and I know I want to be a nurse. I applied to nursing school last week, and am just thinking about the future of my career.

I have some concerns regarding specialty and personality...

I'm a type B, and my general understanding after being on these boards, is that most nurses are type A. Don't get me wrong, I was on time for work and managed to get things done, but yes, I was frequently charting late. I am good at the emotional stuff and getting through to patients.

What specialties do you think would be best for me? I LOVE kids so I would definitely want to do something with kids if I could help it.

I've always had an interest in doing something like the NICU or perhaps pediatric oncology. I'm just a little worried because I'm not one of those anal-retentive types. I am not the neatest person in the world......sigh.

Anyway, I guess my point after this rant is, any type B nurses out there? Is there room for type B's in specialties like the NICU or pediatric oncology?

Wow I have never heard a Type B personality admit they are a Type B personality. I think they were all in denial..... LOL.

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Specializes in Med/Surge, Psych, LTC, Home Health.

I'm very type B, and I had to give report to a severely Type A nurse just this morning. I had already had two pretty stressful shifts back to back and had to bawl my eyes out after giving her report. She grilled me and made me feel dumb. I hate that. :crying2:

I have SUCH a tendency to ignore details and look at the bigger picture, that it can really be a hindrance to my nursing skills, particularly my assessment skills, if I let it. It's like I have to remind myself that just because the patient/resident is lying there, smiling and happy and looking relaxed... all may not all be well.

This nurse acted like she may have a cow because the cart's supplies weren't *EXACTLY* where she leaves them (like she's the only one who uses the cart, ever), and she about had a heart attack when there was an extra blood pressure cuff on the cart.

I don't know, man... I know how important details can be, ESPECIALLY when it comes to patient care, and I do my best to make sure every inch of my residents, look great. But, I don't give a crap how messy the drawers on my cart are, most of the time. I like for the TOP of my cart to look nice, and I do try to make sure that the cart is fairly well stocked for the upcoming shift.

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Specializes in LTC, Memory loss, PDN.
Wow I have never heard a Type B personality admit they are a Type B personality. I think they were all in denial..... LOL.

Why? Type B is a good thing. If it weren't for the bees (spelling intentional) around me over the years, I might well be at increased risk for coronary. ;)

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Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.
There are over 3 million nurses in the US..there are plenty of fellow Type B'ers out there, myself included.

So many nurses freak and worry their license is at stake when the slightest thing goes wrong. I see it in "real life" and on this site all the time. When I mess up, I fess up, apologize, and move on. When colleagues or pts are difficult or mean, I attribute their behavior and comments to them, and not myself. I sometimes even find it funny. I don't take my work and its problems home with me..it's all a distant memory to me as soon as I hit the parking lot. I am not too concerned with how others regard with me. While other nurses may hone in on one thing a pt says or does, I perceive it as just one component of the overall picture and status of the pt.

Do I think that my personality has been a barrier to providing quality nursing care? No, in fact, I think my personality enhances my ability to do so. A calm presence is an asset in psych; the pts generally feel very comfortable, open, and engaged with me. I am able to redirect inappropriate behavior without being abrupt. I am always genuine, and my pts sense that my care towards them is sincere..of course, that changes when I swipe my badge on my way out ;)

So you will be just fine my dear. Best wishes along your journey!! :heartbeat

AMEN!!!!!! I notice so many people stressed out so much by every little thing, on edge and so on, than they just become such negative people. I see nurses that approach it differently bashed and told they have a pollyanna attitude. I was just talking to my CI about this. She has been a nurse for 30 years, now she is a NP in the hospital rounding on different floors and she still have the same attitude, she isn't burnt out and sick of it all. I mean sure not all days are great but over all she says she has kept her same personality she got in for.

We had a patient last week that everyone complained about, the patient was a chronic pain person, was in for a few different things, the pain wasn't being controlled and he was not getting good care because he was thrown into the stereotype right away and more time was spent complaining about him than caring for him. He was on the call light constantly and getting restless. I went in and talked to him. He was saying how his legs were hurting and so stiff and how he just wishes this pain would get under control. I massaged his legs for him. You could see him start to relax and just calm down. I spent 15 mins talking to him and massaging his legs. He went to sleep and was not on the call light anymore. The next day he thanked me for being so kind to him and actually caring for him. Now I know people will say "well you're just a student and wait until you're a nurse, you won't have the time etc. etc." I call BS on it. Sure not all the time will there be extra time, but I have seen a LOT of nurses sitting around bs'ing with each other, surfing the net, on their phones, sitting at the nursing station doing nothing. These were the nurses that were complaining about not having time for anything and so on. These were the nurses in chronically bad moods, and rude to the aides and just negative all around. They would have SAVED time going in with this patient spending the 15 minutes and than having the rest of the night calm.

Anyway, sorry to go off tangent, this is just something that I have noticed a lot this past semester in the hospital. Not all Type A's neglect patient care and the personal contact, and not all Type B's give great patient care and so on. Their are pros and cons to both "types" and a place for us all.

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Specializes in ER, ICU.

Type A, type B, sounds like pigeonholing to me. I'm highly driven, ambitious, detail oriented, messy, minimal charter, get things done, don't care about the fine polish, and think that patient care matters, not the documentation. Which type am I? Who cares? If your patients are important to you, you will be a good nurse. There are many ways to skin a cat, as they say, not that I could come up with more than two... ;) What matters is your heart and your results. If you can get things done while making your patients feel good, that's it. Always a challenge, sometimes fun, and sometimes sad, it's what makes this job great. Don't worry if you think you don't fit the typical profile, because there are a thousand profiles of good nurses.

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
How do you define Type A and Type B?
Click on the link below to read about type A and type B personalities.

Type A and Type B personality theory - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Specializes in pediatrics, public health.

There are two types of people in the world:

-- those who think there are two types of people in the world

-- and those who don't :lol2:

I'm one of the latter types. I think that any scheme for explaining personalities that puts people into little boxes, especially if you only have TWO little boxes, cannot possibly be a useful scheme.

Do you LIKE nursing? Do you feel drawn to particular specialties? (in your case, yes, peds and NICU). Are you willing to keep an open mind as you go through your classes and clinicals to get an even better idea of what types of nursing you enjoy the most? Are you willing to work your butt off to learn what you need to learn? Are you capable of learning from your own mistakes? Can you watch other nurses and learn from them -- striving to imitate what you find most admirable or useful from their practice, while working on developing a style of your own that works for you?

If you can answer YES to these questions, then you will do fine. Please do not worry about what personality "type" you are.

Good luck!

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Specializes in M/S, MICU, CVICU, SICU, ER, Trauma, NICU.

I am super Type A.

Type B in a NICU environment would make me homicidal.

You have to be anal about those little ones.

Now, if you're doing mother baby....maybe that's a different story.

But no to Trauma, ICU, ER or any fast paced environment that requires FAST thinking, immediate reaction.

If you're not up to par, you might get trampled over.

In the RR, I work with a type b that has been branded, unfortunately, but some doctors as "stupid."

She's not. But she moves so slowly, that things go by her so quickly, she misses the little, albeit very, very important details.

She doesn't belong in our fast paced very high acuity area. So she gets sidelined to making phone calls and visiting patients in their rooms--something she can't stand doing.

By the way, there's nothing wrong with being Type B. I wish I were more Type B. Much better for the health and soul....

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In moderation, Type A coworkers are a good thing. They keep slackness and a slipping of standards at bay (the "good enough for government work" attitude is not tolerated by the Type A nurse.)

My first preceptor was an excellent, driven and slightly intimidating type A ICU nurse with years of experience. I depend on nurses like these to tell me the truth.

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Specializes in Trauma ICU, Peds ICU.

I believe there's a nursing specialty for everyone. Detail-oriented and at times fast-paced arenas like a trauma intensive care unit are a little better suited to Type A's I think... but I work with a few very type B people who know how to "ramp it up" when they need to. It's just not their default is all.

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Type B people don't have lower standards nor are they slacked. Having lower standards and not having, "pep in your step," or hussle just means that you are not cut out to be a nurse. This is valid whether you are a type A, type B, or a mix of both.

The key to a good nurse is teamwork, time management, and constantly revising your plan and prioritizing. I have seen type B's that lack this just as much as type A's have too. I can't tell you how many times a type A nurse gets bent out of shape over a minor thing and she/he spends a lot of energy complaining about it instead of going forward. I have also seen Type B's that get taken advantage off from the CNA's because we go with the flow and don't practice assertion.

A few years ago myself and this other nurse worked together on our team. She was an extreme A and I was an extreme B. It was the best job because we appreciated each other so much. We had two similarities: hard work and caring for the patient. We joked and called ourselves the perfect yin and yang of nursing.

You will learn to appreciate nurses that are not like you.

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thanks for all the responses :)

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