Purpose or Case Report: Our primary goal is to study individual narratives of career pathways to provide insight into the crucial turning points in one’s journey from becoming to being a physician.
Methods & Materials: This is a two-section study carried out through grounded theory. In section one, medical trainees completed a self-administered survey with demographic and personal identities questions, and the developing scale (DS) questionnaire, a validated scale to evaluate professional identity formation (PIF) in medical trainees. The DS questions examine 5 factors crucial to PIF: (1) self-control as a professional; (2) awareness of being a medical doctor; (3) reflection as a medical doctor; (4) execution of social responsibility; (5) external and internal self-harmonization. Respondents were invited to participate in section two (in progress), semi-structured interviews to further explore individual narratives of their career paths and PIF. Descriptive statistics for survey questions were used. Impact of different categories was analyzed using Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis test with a significance at p<0.05.
Results: We included 298 students (96.8%) and 10 residents (3.2%). Mean age 25.6 years (STD 2.78). Most common genders were CIS female 53.2% (164/308), and CIS male 45.5% (140/308). Most prevalent race was white 47.2% (145/308). Most common ethnicities were Chinese 19.2% (59/308), English/Welsh/Scottish/Northern-Irish/British 12% (37/308), and Indian 10.4% (32/308). Most were U.S Citizen 90.3% (241/267), non-religious/agnostic/atheist 44.8% (138/308), heterosexual 76.3% (235/308), and from an upper-middle socioeconomic status 45.8% (141/308). Characteristics with a significantly higher DS score were, for factor 1: CIS male (p=0.022), non-hetero orientation (p=0.018), and lower socioeconomic status (LSS) (p=0.025); for factor 2: white race (p=0.036) and group age between 25-40 years (p=0.001); factor 4: underrepresented minority and LSS (p=0.020); and for factor 5: non-white races (p<0.001).
Conclusions: Our results show a high prevalence of the historically traditional characteristics of a medical applicant. Furthermore, there are significant relationships between personal identities and the DS. This emphasizes the importance of a second section of the study, where one-on-one interviews are being conducted to evaluate the aspects that affect professional identity and thus develop a more diverse and inclusive curriculum. Phase two is forthcoming and will consist of an educational intervention and its evaluation.