Constructing Professional Identity in an Online Graduate Clinical Training Program: Possibilities for Online Supervision

Abstract

While distance education is solidly entrenched in the American educational scene, clinical supervision using distance learning technology is not yet so clearly accepted. A review of the literature found very few studies of the use of Internet technology for clinical supervision. This study used semi-structured interviews combined with Giorgi's method of phenomenological analysis of experiences of students and site supervisors involved in one university's clinical training program. The purpose of the study was to examine the process by which master's degree students are able to construct their professional identity in an online environment. Both supervisors and students reported phenomenological evidence that professional identity can in fact be constructed through group interactions based in an Internet class experience.