Ethical Moments and Professional Identity Formation in the Context of Cross-Cultural Identities
Saturday, September 21, 2024
10:15 AM – 11:15 AM CT
Location: Grand Ballroom C (First Floor)
Abstract: Professional identity formation (PIF), in the context of medical school, has become increasingly important in the development of a well-rounded physician. We propose that understanding how medical students' diverse and minoritized cultural backgrounds affect the way they navigate ethically significant moments in their professional training has important implications for inclusion and equity in medical pedagogy. Our study employed a qualitative cross-sectional approach to understanding the PIF experiences of underrepresented-in-medicine (UiM) students. We conducted semi-structured interviews with twelve third- and fourth-year medical students of diverse backgrounds. Following this, participants completed a modified Professional Self-Identity Questionnaire for Health and Social Care Profession (PSIQ) survey to elucidate a quantitative measure of the student’s stage of PIF. We coded the interviews based on emerging and previously identified themes in the literature, and taking a mixed methods approach, combined the qualitative and quantitative analyses to understand the salience and impact of students’ minoritized cultural identity to their professional development. In this presentation, we will describe our study and present some findings related to these research questions: (1) What role do clinical experiences, including cross-cultural encounters, play in shaping the professional identity of medical students from diverse cultural backgrounds? (2) How do medical students from diverse cultural backgrounds perceive ethical dilemmas and distresses, and how, if at all, do their experiences differ from those of their peers from dominant cultural groups? We conclude by assessing the broader implications of our findings for medical pedagogy on PIF.
Learning Objectives:
After participating in this conference, attendees should be able to:
Understand how cross-cultural identities shape a medical student’s professional identity formation (PIF) in medicine.
Consider how underrepresented medical students perceive ethically significant moments in the clinic and whether their experiences differ from those of peers from dominant cultural groups.
Assess potential implications of the experiences of underrepresented for medical pedagogy.
Daniel Kim – Assistant Professor, Alden March Bioethics Institute, Albany Medical College; Wayne Shelton – Professor, Alden March Bioethics Institute, Albany Medical College
