Professional identity research in the health professions-a scoping review

Professional identity impacts the workforce at personal, interpersonal and profession levels however there is a lack of reviews of professional identity research across practising health professionals. To summarise professional identity research in the health professions literature and explore how professional identity is described a scoping review was conducted by searching Medline, Psycinfo, Embase, Scopus, CINAHL, and Business Source Complete using "professional identity" and related terms for 32 health professions. Empirical studies of professional identity in post-registration health professionals were examined with health profession, career stage, background to research, theoretical underpinnings and constructs of professional identity being extracted, charted and analysed using content analysis where relevant. From 9941 studies, 160 studies across 17 health professions were identified, with nursing and medicine most common. Twenty studies focussed on professional identity in the five years post-entry to the workforce and 56 studies did not state career stage. The most common background for the research was the impact of political, social and healthcare reforms and advances. Thirty five percent of studies (n = 57) stated the use of a theory or framework of identity, the most common being classified as social theories. Individual constructs of professional identity across the research were categorised into five themes-The Lived Experience of Professional Identity; The World Around Me; Belonging; Me; and Learning and Qualifications. Descriptions of professional identity are broad, varied, rich and multi-layered however the literature is under theorised with current theories potentially inadequate to capture its complexity and make meaningful contributions to the allied health professions.

The personal dimension of allied health professional identity: A scoping review in health sciences literature / Die persönliche Dimension der beruflichen Identität von Gesundheitsfachkräften: ein Scoping-Review in der gesundheitswissenschaftlichen Literatur

Introduction

With a shift in healthcare from diagnosis-centered to human- and interprofessional-centered work, allied health professionals (AHPs) may encounter dilemmas in daily work because of discrepancies between values of learned professional protocols and their personal values, the latter being a component of the personal dimension. The personal dimension can be defined as a set of personal components that have a substantial impact on professional identity. In this study, we aim to improve the understanding of the role played by the personal dimension, by answering the following research question: What is known about the personal dimension of the professional identity of AHPs in (allied) health literature?

Methods

In the scoping review, databases, CINAHL, ERIC, Medline, PubMed, and PsychINFO were searched for studies focusing on what is regarded as ‘the personal dimension of professional identity’ of AHPs in the health literature; 81 out of 815 articles were included and analyzed in this scoping review. A varying degree of attention for the personal dimension within the various allied health professions was observed.

Result

After analysis, we introduce the concept of four aspects in the personal dimension of AHPs. We explain how these aspects overlap to some degree and feed into each other. The first aspect encompasses characteristics like gender, age, nationality, and ethnicity. The second aspect consists of the life experiences of the professional. The third involves character traits related to resilience and virtues. The fourth aspect, worldview, is formed by the first three aspects and consists of the core beliefs and values of AHPs, paired with personal norms.

Discussion

These four aspects are visualized in a conceptual model that aims to make AHPs more aware of their own personal dimension, as well as the personal dimension of their colleagues intra- and interprofessionally. It is recommended that more research be carried out to examine how the personal dimension affects allied health practice.

Discourse tensions: Professional socialisation into nursing within the university education system

Starting university brings expectations of new experiences and a good social life (Morton and Tighe, 2011), however student nurse experience may not mirror these expectations. The aim of this study was to identify any indications of 'differentness' expressed in students talk, track development and changes in student language over the duration of their programme, and explore how language might situate lecturers and students within a professional socialisation process. Using Discourse Analysis (Potter and Wetherell, 1987), interviews (n = 17) were conducted with 8 lecturers and 7 volunteer student nurses multiple times over 3 years (April 2013 - August 2016). Analysis uncovered three discourse tensions, each showing resonance with students and their lecturers: The university student and the student nurse; The Nursing and Midwifery Council registrant and the lecturer; Student nurses as consumers of their university education. Students did not appear to align themselves with the university after experiencing clinical practice, and lecturers' language attempted to position students away from traditional student experiences to protect professional standards.