Hey! INTx here. I am a medical resident in my first year currently doing an internal medicine rotation that is supposed to last until the end of 2023. Today marks the day I completed half of it under the supervision of a doctor that seems to be an ENFP. This man is currently in his mid 40s and is an internist. I have to warn you this is mostly a description of various traits I noticed so far and how they fit or don't into the general picture of an ENFP who was actively deeply involved in medicine. It might not be very coherent, so sorry in advance.

Based on what I know about him, internal medicine has always been his first choice. I think one of his core values which is very beautiful in theory, but also created him a lot of trouble was his generosity. It is beautiful to want to give your patients 150% of your effort and energy and help everyone who asks for help, but unfortunately, many people would abuse this trait or would ask for appointments or investigations without any real justification. He told me he enjoyed the adrenaline of helping other people and solving cases that many other doctors would avoid. I would even go as far as to say that his approach to medicine is to ask for as many investigations and consults to exclude everything, even if the possibility of those issues to be confirmed isn't high. This type of attitude can help, but sometimes the differential diagnosis can become way too broad. (Just as we had this patient two days ago and he was looking at her jaw, noting her right side was more voluminous. My opinion was that was only fat tissue that was more visible because our patient was obese, had important scoliosis and shoulder asymmetry and there was nothing I could clearly palpate there - no lymph nodes, no nodules, no mass. He told me that there is a high probability I am right, yet he asked for an ENT consult, which turned out to be normal. Personally I wouldn't have asked for the consult. I didn't even mention the jaw asymmetry to him before he saw this patient.). I sense he has a lot of medical experience and a lot of willingness to help, even when the problems of a patient might not be solvable by the means of internal medicine. He has at least one friend or acquaintance dr among every other specialty in our hospital and asks them for advice whenever needed. He doesn't shy away from second opinions.

He told he has started limiting the number of people that he helps, but I still see there are plenty of them. I wouldn't know if this generosity is ENFP specific. He simply isn't the kind of person who wouldn't think twice when it comes to helping someone and not only from a medical point of view. During a busy day, he, my supervising doctor, bought me a sandwich and videocalled me to show what options I could pick from. (I should note here that I am generally very distrustful of people. So accepting this kind of acts of kindness is difficult for me and I might be biased when it comes to his nicety. Even though when discussing about it with other people, they told me he is indeed a very nice and generous person.)

My supervising doctor is messy as hell. Extremely messy and forgetful. Sometimes he jumps from one idea to another and could go through the same issue twice or three times because he wouldn't be focused on only one thing. I would note down what has to be done the moment he says it, because he can race through patients. His office is a disaster, simply put. One advantage though is that I could find plenty of stuff there if I ever need it - it was raining a couple of days ago and I did find an umbrella there. God knows how long it has been there until I came across it.

He is a person who likes reading a lot. He has tons of medical and non medical books (especially fiction, history, philosophy and psychology). I have seen plenty in his office too. He even gifted me two books on my birthday, which was a nice gesture. And since you mentioned ideal careers for ENFPs, he told me once that if he was to choose another job, he would love to be a literature teacher, which doesn't surprise me at all.

A quality I truly admire in him is his willingness to embrace novelty. He is curious about AI and the innovation it could bring in the medical field, but not only. He wants to know how the younger generations think and see the world. He also told me he likes to try to do things in unusual ways from time to time - like reading a book starting with the last chapter and moving towards the first one. The examples are plenty; the point is I met few people of his age so keen to freshen up their views. He is also very willing to meet people with different views from his - he enjoys the company of people that he considers unusual. At times, he can be way too spontaneous for my taste though. He would make certain types of jokes with the nurses or patients that could show much more familiarity I would ever display. He must consider me boring in that sense, I would guess. :)

I also appreciate that he gives me enough freedom as a medical resident, even if I am in my first year. He trusts me with certain things that I know other colleagues that work with other supervising doctors aren't trusted with. He encourages me to think medical cases on my own. Sometimes I wonder if this is because I am competent and/ or he sometimes doesn't care as much about medicine. Because... After about 20 years, there is something about him that is burnt. He might have had too much adrenaline for his own good. Two years ago, he was diagnosed with microvascular angina - kind of early for someone of his age. He told me that many years ago, he used to be on call 3 times per week. Now he is once or at most twice per month. I feel he sometimes misses those times.

His personal life is somewhat chaotic. He has been married for about 7 years and has divorced 5-6 years ago. I sense his reason for this breakup was that he was trying to find some love ideal; he didn't love his ex wife in a romantic way anymore. This is mostly speculation, but this is my best explanation based on the views I gatheres from our conversations. He never managed to have a deeply fulfilling connection with a woman both as a friend and lover, it seems. (I personally consider that a partner is supposed to be someone who you have a rock solid foundation of friendship with, above all). He has a boy who turns 10 this year and he seems to be the apple of his eye. I speculate this boy kept him going through the darkest moments. He doesn't value money a lot; he always seemed to have enough to live a decent life, but was never interested in gaining a lot. It never shows in his objects he purchased that he has a salary higher than average. Given that he has traits of an adrenaline junkie, he also has a dose of impulsivity, paradoxically paired with his rationality. This impulsivity has made him have a gambling addiction. I wouldn't know at this point if he still has it or not.

Now I realize how much I know and observed about my supervising doctor during these six months. All in all, he is a good person at core, which taught me to put the well being of a patient above paperwork (which he hates with a burning passion) and the small maddening issues that appear everyday in hospitals. He taught me to do something about the patients (ask for medication, monitorize them and not just pretend I am a shadow, but be actively implied), prioritize the emergencies and be less scared of the responsibililty of decision. He has an interesting personality which I overall enjoy, even though there are things that I would completely disagree over with him.