Background:
Identity formation is one of the frameworks to address professional development amongst healthcare students (Irby and Hamstra, 2016). Professional development is a continuous nurturing process. Healthcare students gradually develop their professional identity to mirror the values and dispositions of their profession; and to become the very best they could be, professionally. There is a significant association between professional development and reflective ability; although the causality of the association needs further investigations (Hoffman et al., 2016). There is a need to move from theoretical frameworks to interventions that foster professionalization among future healthcare professionals.
Description of the work
To help students of pharmacy and nursing form their professional identity, we introduce them to a series of simulation and experiential interventions. Interprofessional education (IPE) is a key catalyst intervention for formation of professional identity. Students' attitudes towards IPE are evaluated; their interactions with their peers and their engagement with the activities are observed by a multidisciplinary team of healthcare teacher-practitioners. We also collect teacher-practitioners’ views on the key strengths and key development areas of each student. During a formative appraisal session students self-assess their key strengths and key development areas. After which, we share with them the views of their teachers. Then, students have to come up with an action plan to showcase their plans and strategies to address the key development areas.
Proposed evaluation
We apply a multi-pronged evaluation plan to assess the interventions. Firstly, we collect feedback from students, by survey about their appraisal session immediately. Secondly, we will continue monitoring students' professional identity formation post appraisal to graduation. We will look for changes in students' attitudes and behaviour post-appraisal. For instance, pre- and post-evaluation of attitudes towards engagement with the IPE activities. We will also evaluate the year over year (YOY) comparison of the students’ behaviour in the context of time management, punctuality and communication skills.. Finally, we will assess the overall experience of students on their professional development using standard social science methodology, including questionnaires and focus groups
