Professional Identity Formation Among College Premedical Students: A Glimpse into the Looking Glass Using a Career Eulogy Reflective Exercise

Abstract

Introduction Pre-medical students are at the very beginning of their formation of a professional identity as a physician. Working with these students early in their education can help them appreciate the importance of professional identity formation as well as inform educators on best methods to understand this process. Methods A reflective exercise was used at the beginning of sessions with pre-medical students at their home campus who attended a medical school presentation on the admissions process. Students were asked to reflect on what they wished to be said about them at the end of their career in the form of a “Career Eulogy.” A simple form was developed and administered to the students to capture their reflective writing and their basic demographics anonymously. Qualitative data were blinded and then coded into clusters by the authors using an iterative process. Results Reflections from 79 pre-medical students indicated a preference to be remembered for quality and excellence in care, especially among upper level students and students from small towns. Compassion, patient relationships, and the doctor as teacher terms were more likely to be written by Juniors and Seniors while Freshmen and Sophomores tended to focus on terms related to enjoyment of life and service. Discussion This reflective exercise provided useful insight into professional identity formation among these college pre-meds and could be used with larger, more diverse groups to determine its value and clarify true differences among the demographic characteristics. Involving similar pre-medical students in focus group settings could also further assist with interpretation of the meaning of these reflections. Funding/Support: None. Human Subjects: This study was determined exempt by the Baptist Health Madisonville Institutional Review Board. Conflicts of Interest: None

Keywords

• Professional Identity; pre-medical education