Browsing by Subject "Professional identity"

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    The lived experience of professional identity in master nursing academics
    (2013-06) Becker, Brenda Anne
    Background: Minimal research exists regarding professional identity in nursing faculty. The established literature from teaching, nursing, and medicine shows professional identity promotes resilience, collaboration, and positive practice outcomes. These factors would be beneficial in the recruitment, orientation, and retention of nursing faculty. Purpose: The goal of this research was to explore, interpret, and understand the phenomenon of professional identity in expert nursing academics. Design/Methods: This hermeneutic phenomenological study used the philosophy and methods of Max van Manen (1997). Each participant completed a written narrative describing a defining moment in his or her career, drew and labeled an Illustrated Career Trajectory, and participated in a narrative interview. The data were coded and interpreted to determine the essence of professional identity in master nursing academics. Findings: Thirteen master academics participated in this study. The essential themes were: Professional Identity as Individualized Construct, Workplace as Formative Agent, Teacher as Lifelong Student, Relationships, Focus on the Students, and Constant Reconstruction Over Time. A conceptual model was developed to illustrate the relationships between the essential themes. Conclusions: Professional identity is a relevant phenomenon for nursing faculty throughout an entire career. Organizations must be cognizant of the needs of novice to expert nursing faculty, as supporting the development of professional identity benefits the practitioner, the organization, and the students.
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    Student perceptions of professional identity and cultural competence.
    (2011-05) Godsey, Shannon Rose
    By the time they reach their second year of graduate school, students of speech-language pathology are well into the process of developing a professional identity and have been exposed to academic and clinical experiences designed to develop their cultural competence. This grounded theory study was designed to investigate how students perceive their professional identities and how they perceive the concept of cultural competence. The results of this study indicate students are learning the knowledge programs are designed to teach them, but current practices may be limiting. Students understand the importance of culturally competent care, but they tend to narrow their concepts of cultural competence to facts and characteristics of cultural groups they see as other than themselves. The conclusions from this research encourage the development of cultural competence and professional identity through a process of examining interactive cultural relationships. Within this approach instruction and clinical experiences would involve a consistent recognition that each interaction is a relationship and each interaction involves the coming together of cultures. Helping students recognize the cultural relationship in every interaction allows them to develop their cultural competence and professional identities regardless of the demographics of their geographical placement and will provide them with the skills to adapt and meet the needs of each client and cultural group. Finally, this approach can shift the discourse of the profession away from the concept of how other cultures are different from the norm to one that considers all forms of similarities and differences in the provider-client relationship.