Supporting the development of a professional identity: General principles

Abstract

While teaching medical professionalism has been an important aspect of medical education over the past two decades, the recent emergence of professional identity formation as an important concept has led to a reexamination of how best to ensure that medical graduates come to “think, act, and feel like a physician.” If the recommendation that professional identity formation as an educational objective becomes a reality, curricular change to support this objective is required and the principles that guided programs designed to teach professionalism must be reexamined. It is proposed that the social learning theory communities of practice serve as the theoretical basis of the curricular revision as the theory is strongly linked to identity formation. Curricular changes that support professional identity formation include: the necessity to establish identity formation as an educational objective, include a cognitive base on the subject in the formal curriculum, to engage students in the development of their own identities, provide a welcoming community that facilitates their entry, and offer faculty development to ensure that all understand the educational objective and the means chosen to achieve it. Finally, there is a need to assist students as they chart progress towards becoming a professional.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article.

Glossary

Professional identity: “A representation of self, achieved in stages over time during which the characteristics, values, and norms of the medical profession are internalized, resulting in an individual thinking, acting, and feeling like a physician.”

Cruess RL, Cruess SR, Boudreau JD, Snell L, Steinert Y. 2014. Reframing medical education to support professional identity formation. Acad Med. 89:1446–1451.

Professional identity formation: “An adaptive developmental process that happens simultaneously at two levels: (1) at the level of the individual, which involves the psychological development of the person and (2) at the collective level, which involves the socialization of the person into appropriate roles and forms of participation in the community’s work.”

Jarvis-Selinger S, Pratt DD, Regehr G. 2012. Competency is not enough: integrating identity formation into the medical education discourse. Acad Med. 87:1185–1190.

Socialization: “The process by which a person learns to function within a particular society or group by internalizing its values and norms” (Oxford English Dictionary 1989).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sylvia R. Cruess

Sylvia R. Cruess, MD, Centre for Medical Education, Lady Meredith House, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec

Richard L. Cruess

Richard L. Cruess, MD, Centre for Medical Education, Lady Meredith House, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec

Yvonne Steinert

Yvonne Steinert, PhD, Centre for Medical Education, Lady Meredith House, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec