Reconstructing professional identity for professional and interprofessional practice: A mixed methods study of joint training programmes in learning disability nursing and social work

Abstract

This article draws on the findings from a mixed methods study with practitioners who qualified from joint training programmes in learning disability nursing and social work and explores the impact on professional identity of such programmes. Although several joint programmes are well established, very little research has been carried out with those who have qualified from them. These practitioners have experienced a kind of training quite unlike that offered by singular education programmes, incorporating a dual socialisation process, which has been neither analysed nor theorised. The study reported in this article comprised a postal survey to graduates from five programmes followed by in depth semi-structured interviews. Survey data were analysed by use of SPSS, while the interviews were analysed by use of a content analysis approach. The article discusses findings in relation to theoretical conceptions of professional status, boundaries and identity and relates these to the perceptions of respondents about their professional identities. It explores the ambiguities and uncertainties inherent in this type of professional training programme and argues that these reflect aspects of the current context of professions as a whole. The article concludes that a new professional identity is emerging in learning disability practice, generated by such programmes.

Keywords:

• Joint training
• professional identity
• dual socialisation
• learning disability nursing
• social work
• professionalism
• interprofessionalism