Multiple Professional Identities Research Articles

Beliefs, identities and educational practice: a Q methodology study of general practice supervisors

Quality of supervisory practices varies. According to the integrative model of behaviour prediction, supervisors' beliefs may influence practice. This study aimed to examine the belief profiles of general practice supervisors, and their potential relationship with supervisory practice. A cross-sectional study was conducted using Q-methodology to explore supervisors' beliefs and the Maastricht Clinical Teaching Questionnaire to measure self-reported supervisory practice. One-hundred and thirty-nine supervisors took part (76%). The most common belief profile (36.7%) comprised a proactive view of supervisors' roles, strong self-efficacy beliefs and awareness of university norms. It revealed merged identities as clinicians and teachers. The second profile (18.0%) included a belief that supervision essentially involved sharing one's experience, uncertainty about the impact of supervision and about university norms. This profile was consistent with a pre-eminence of supervisors' identities as clinicians. Supervisors with merged identities were more likely to have more experience as supervisors and to engage in other teaching activities. Differences in self-reported supervisory practice were observed but did not reach statistical significance (P = 0.053). Supervisors' beliefs reveal differences in the way they manage their multiple professional identities. Further research should be conducted into whether these differences are developmental and if so how development occurs.

Relationship Between Chiropractic Teaching Institutions and Practice Characteristics Among Canadian Doctors of Chiropractic: A Random Sample Survey

ObjectiveThe objectives of this study were to determine if faction membership among Canadian doctors of chiropractic (DCs) is associated with differences in educational program characteristics among English-speaking Canadian and United States chiropractic colleges and to determine if those differences are expressed in terms of surveyed attitudes and behaviors regarding treatment efficacy, radiographic imaging, vaccinations, and interprofessional referrals. This study also aims to identify if educational programs may be a potential source of multiple professional identities. MethodsA randomly selected sample of Canadian DCs, stratified across the English-speaking provinces, was surveyed by mail. Survey items included school of graduation, self-categorization by chiropractic subgroup, perceptions of condition-specific treatment efficacy, use of plain film radiographic imaging, vaccination attitudes/behaviors, and patient referral patterns. Self-categorization by chiropractic subgroup included: the unorthodox faction (associates the chiropractic subluxation as an encumbrance to the expression of health) and the orthodox perspective (associates with musculoskeletal joint dysfunction, public health, and lifestyle concerns). For data analysis, chiropractic schools were divided into 2 groups according to location: English-speaking Canada and the US. The US was further clustered into liberal (“interested in mixing elements of modern and alternative therapies into the practice of chiropractic") and conservative categories (“chiropractors who believe in continuing the traditions of chiropractic"). ResultsOf 740 deliverable questionnaires, 503 were returned for a response rate of 68%. χ2 Testing revealed significant differences in self-categorized faction membership associated with the clustering of colleges based on ideological viewpoints (χ2 = 27.06; P = .000). Descriptive results revealed a relationship between school of origin and perceived treatment efficacy, use of radiographic imaging, and vaccination attitudes. No significant differences were found relative to interprofessional referral patterns. ConclusionChiropractic program attended is a significant predictor of orthodox vs unorthodox faction membership and professional practice characteristics for Canadian DCs. This suggests that the current chiropractic education system may contribute to multiple professional identities.

Towards Interdisciplinary Community Collaboration and Development

SUMMARY This article looks at the conceptualization and practice of interdisciplinary community collaboration and development (ICCD) in Israel and the US. It is based on the work of two interdisciplinary professional groups which were initiated by social workers—one in Israel and one in the US. This article presents a mapping of key issues and concepts, including distinguishing between mono-, multi-, and inter-, trans-disciplinary and inter-perspectives. The article addresses the issues of multiple professional identities, identification of a common core knowledge base and skills among disciplinary specializations for community development practice, and an understanding of inter-organizational perspectives. A qualitative methodology was used to conduct a content analysis of data from dialogues among professional practitioners in the Israeli and the US groups. Despite differences in the purpose, frequency and intensity of the two forums, there is an underlying belief in the importance of these discussions and in the commitment to interdisciplinary practice. Both groups believe that multiple types of expertise are needed, alongside new models of both inter-organizational and interdisciplinary relationships as well as professional-community interactions. Recommendations include the need for further examination of interdisciplinary community collaboration and development.

Multiple professional identities: Examining differences in identification across work-related targets.

Although there is a growing literature on organizational identification, relatively little research has investigated other possible targets of identification. In a sample of veterinarians working in a wide range of organizations, the authors compared their identification with the veterinary profession, their organization, and their workgroup. The authors found different patterns of identification across these targets depending on whether the individual (a) worked in a veterinary medicine or nonveterinary medicine organization and (b) was an owner/partner or an associate. Owners of veterinary medicine organizations identified more with the organization than with either the profession or their workgroup. Associates in veterinary medicine organizations identified more with the organization and the workgroup than with the profession. Veterinarians in nonveterinary medicine organizations identified more with the profession and their workgroup than with the organization. Identification with each of the targets provided independent predictive validity of job satisfaction.

Werkbundpolitik and Weltpolitik: The German State's Interest in Global Commerce and "Good Design," 1912-1914"

Although the conflict between Muthesius and van de Velde has been well documented in the annals of modern architectural and design history, far less understood is the extent to which domestic political crises and new policy departures in Berlin served as preconditions for the Werkbund conflict in the first place. Prominent Werkbund members—men such as Werkbund Managing Director Ernst Jäckh and Werkbund Vice President Hermann Muthesius, but also including such national political figures and Werkbund members as Friedrich Naumann of Württemberg and Gustav Stresemann of Saxony—used institutional affiliations and their multiple professional identities to forge unprecedented linkages between the Werkbund leadership, industrial interest groups, and powerful German state interests. Specifically, and at the national level, new policies articulated by German Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg and key German ministries in Berlin, strident national interest group politics, and an evolving state outlook toward Weltpolitik (geopolitical strategy) combined to reshape Werkbund policy in fundamental ways between 1912 and 1914. Without these forces, and without developments that followed the lopsided and highly contentious Reichstag elections of January 1912, the Werkbund likely never would have risen to the prominent position it came to occupy with state authorities by July 1914.