The development and evaluation of a Professional Self Identity Questionnaire to measure evolving professional self-identity in health and social care students

Figures & data

Table

Practice points

Delayed professional self-identity can be a barrier to successful transition from student to professional. We present a generic tool to measure the development of professional self-identity across health and social care students. Our data suggests that the tool is a valid research measure for studying the development of professional self-identity in doctors. It is not intended for individual assessment. We now intend to use the tool to diagnose curricular features that influence the development of professional self-identity.

Table 1.  Factor structure of responses

Item	Factor 1 loading	Factor 2 loading	Factor 3 loading
Teamwork	0.42	0.39	0.46
Communication	0.31	0.41	0.78
Conducting assessments	0.63	0.21	0.59
Cultural awareness	0.34	0.53	0.43
Ethical awareness	0.20	0.71	0.22
Using records	0.52	0.46	0.31
Dealing with emergencies	0.64	0.23	0.22
Reflection	0.34	0.60	0.26
Teaching	0.55	0.39	0.24

Figure 1. Mean PSIQ score by phase of course for each of the nine themes.

Figure 2. Valid response rates by phase of course.