Professional Identity Formation in Surgical Residents
Jeroen Bransen, Martijn Poeze, Marianne Mak-van der Vossen, Laurents Stassen, Scheltus Jan van Luijk, Walther N.K.A. van MookObjective:
To explore which experiences are important for surgical residents’ professional identity formation (PIF) and which factors influence this process.
Summary Background Data:
Experiential learning is crucial to residents’ PIF as it enables them to gradually integrate the characteristics, competencies, norms, and values of the community with their own. To date, research has primarily provided theoretical descriptions of experiential learning and PIF. However, it remains unclear which specific experiences play a key role in surgical residents’ PIF during training.
Methods:
Adopting a social constructivist paradigm, we used an approach based on constructivist grounded theory. We purposively sampled 19 residents, surgeons, and training program directors for five online focus groups. To explore different perspectives and ensure residents’ confidentiality, focus groups were organized by participant type. Data were collected and analyzed iteratively using constant comparison.
Results:
We identified 3 categories of key experiences for PIF during surgical residency:
Conclusions:
Our findings advance understanding of how specific experiences shape PIF during surgical residency. Recognizing and deliberately integrating learning from these experiences may strengthen support for residents’ professional development, both within formal curricula and in everyday clinical practice.