Abstract
PurposeProfessional identity formation is an on-going, integrative process underlying trainees’ experiences of medical education. Since each medical student’s professional identity formation process is an individual, internal, and often times emotionally charged unconscious experience, it can be difficult for educators to understand each student’s unique experience. We investigate if mask making can provide learners and educators the opportunity to explore medical students’ professional identity formation experiences.MethodsIn 2014 and 2015, 30 third year medical students created masks, with a brief accompanying written narrative, to creatively express their medical education experiences. Using a paradigmatic case selection approach, four masks were analyzed using techniques from visual rhetoric and the Listening Guide.ResultsThe research team clearly detected identity dissonance in each case. Each case provided insights into the unique personal experiences of the dissonance process for each trainee at a particular point in their medical school training.ConclusionsWe propose that mask making accompanied by a brief narrative reflection can help educators identify students experiencing identity dissonance, and explore each student’s unique experience of that dissonance. The process of making these artistic expressions may also provide a form of intervention that can enable educators to help students navigate professional identity formation and identity dissonance experiences.
Highlights
The process of professional identity formation in medical education is an area of active investigation [1,2,3,4,5]
The process of making these artistic expressions may provide a form of intervention that can enable educators to help students navigate professional identity formation and identity dissonance experiences
Medical students endure many challenges related to professional identity formation that are undetected amidst other required training objectives
Summary
The process of professional identity formation in medical education is an area of active investigation [1,2,3,4,5]. Students navigate the process of integrating their new identity as a physician with individual sub-identities within the competitive and demanding environment of medical education. For trainees whose personal and professional identities are not congruent, professional identity formation can be a distressing process that requires them to adopt an altered world-view with different values and emotional orientations [3]. This incongruity has been termed identity dissonance [7]: the disconcerting internal experience of conflict between irreconcilable aspects of self [8]. Students who avoid the formation and integration of their personal and professional identities often struggle to find success in their chosen field [7]
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