ArticlePerspectives on medical education2024
Identity Work: A Qualitative Study of Residents' Experiences Navigating Identity Struggles.
Article in Perspectives on medical education, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed.
- Mirrors and prisms: How interprofessional interactions influence medical students' professional identity formation.Medical education · 2026Article
- Educator's Blueprint: Optimizing the Resident Research Experience.AEM education and training · 2026Article
- Role-Modeling Character Virtues in Surgical Teaching: An Exploratory Qualitative Study of Attending Surgeons.Annals of surgery open : perspectives of surgical history, education, and clinical approaches · 2026Article
- Shame among medical learners: An uncertainty-focused conception.Patient education and counseling · 2026Article
- Stories of who we are: exploring trainee pharmacists' professional identity constructions through workplace narratives.Advances in health sciences education : theory and practice · 2026Article
- Uncertainty tolerance in healthcare: towards a normative conception.Theoretical medicine and bioethics · 2026Article
- Professional identity formation in public health residents: participation in the vast landscape of practice.BMC medical education · 2025Article
- Editorial: Professional identities within healthcare professions education.Frontiers in medicine · 2025Article
- Professional Identity Formation Metaphors: Old Problems and New Promises.Perspectives on medical education · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Introduction: Medical training traditionally holds a deterministic view of professional socialization wherein many medical learners struggle to construct a professional identity. Previous research has demonstrated the dysfunctional norms and conflicting ideologies that create identity struggle, disproportionally affecting women and individuals underrepresented in medicine. Symbolic interactionism can help explain identity struggles, emphasizing the influence of socio-contextual factors on identity construction. The purpose of this study was to explore how residents navigate identity struggles during residency training. Method: We conducted a qualitative exploration of 12 residents in three specialties at three academic institutions in the United States. Participants engaged in rich picture drawings followed by one-on-one interviews. We coded transcript data and met regularly to identify themes related to residents' experiences with navigating professional identity struggles. Results: We identified three main themes on navigating identity struggles: the weight of identity work, the isolating nature of identity work, and the navigation that occurs with and against socio-contextual currents. Residents described identity work as navigation like a boat at sea. This work felt weighty and at times overwhelming and residents often felt unable to discuss their identity struggles with others. Residents utilized what agency they had to either navigate with the current, navigating towards acceptable-albeit imperfect-paths forward, or attempting to go against the current to forge new paths through resistance. Discussion: This study highlights how context enables and constrains identity construction, how contextual constraints can create dissonance between identities, and the considerable effort required to reconcile dissonance and construct professional identities. Training program adjustments, enhanced resident support, and cultural shifts are required to sustain residents' identity work. Medical professionals should engage in collective identity work to reimagine the profession's identity by addressing dysfunctional cultural norms.
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