Team players and helpers - describing professional identity among finnish physicians in a cross-sectional study
Mattila, Pyry; Hyppölä, Harri; Heikkilä, Teppo; Heistaro, Sami; Kaila, Minna; Kulmala, Petri; Sumanen, Markku; Mäntyselkä, Pekka (2024-03-19)
Mattila, Pyry
Hyppölä, Harri
Heikkilä, Teppo
Heistaro, Sami
Kaila, Minna
Kulmala, Petri
Sumanen, Markku
Mäntyselkä, Pekka
Biomed central
19.03.2024
Mattila, P., Hyppölä, H., Heikkilä, T. et al. Team players and helpers – describing professional identity among finnish physicians in a cross-sectional study. BMC Med Educ 24, 304 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-024-05268-7
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https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
© The Author(s) 2024. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:oulu-202403212387
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:oulu-202403212387
Tiivistelmä
Abstract
Background:
Every physician has a unique professional identity. However, little is known about the diversity of identities among physicians. This study aimed to quantitatively assess the professional identity of physicians in Finland using descriptions of professional identity.
Methods:
This study was part of a larger cross-sectional Finnish Physician 2018 Study. The target population consisted of all Finnish physicians under the age of 70 (N = 24,827) in 2018. The sample was drawn from physicians born on even numbered days (N = 11,336) using the Finnish Medical Association register. A total of 5,187 (46%) physicians responded. Professional identity was examined by 27 given characterisations using a five-point Likert scale. Multivariate logistic regression was used in assessing how place of work, graduation year and gender were associated with identity descriptions.
Results:
The descriptions which most physicians identified with were “member of a working group/team” (82%), “helper” (82%), and “health expert” (79%); the majority reported these as describing them very or quite well. Identity descriptions such as “prescriber of medications” (68% vs. 45%), “prioritiser” (57% vs. 35%) and “someone issuing certificates” (52% vs. 32%) were more popular among junior than senior physicians. The biggest differences between the genders were found in the descriptions “provider of comfort” (62% vs. 40%) and “someone engaged in social work” (45% vs. 25%), with which women identified more frequently than men.
Conclusions:
Strong identification as a member of a team is an important finding in the increasingly multiprofessional world of health care. Importantly, most physicians shared several core professional identity descriptions (i.e., helper, health expert) that reflect the traditional image of an exemplary doctor.
Background:
Every physician has a unique professional identity. However, little is known about the diversity of identities among physicians. This study aimed to quantitatively assess the professional identity of physicians in Finland using descriptions of professional identity.
Methods:
This study was part of a larger cross-sectional Finnish Physician 2018 Study. The target population consisted of all Finnish physicians under the age of 70 (N = 24,827) in 2018. The sample was drawn from physicians born on even numbered days (N = 11,336) using the Finnish Medical Association register. A total of 5,187 (46%) physicians responded. Professional identity was examined by 27 given characterisations using a five-point Likert scale. Multivariate logistic regression was used in assessing how place of work, graduation year and gender were associated with identity descriptions.
Results:
The descriptions which most physicians identified with were “member of a working group/team” (82%), “helper” (82%), and “health expert” (79%); the majority reported these as describing them very or quite well. Identity descriptions such as “prescriber of medications” (68% vs. 45%), “prioritiser” (57% vs. 35%) and “someone issuing certificates” (52% vs. 32%) were more popular among junior than senior physicians. The biggest differences between the genders were found in the descriptions “provider of comfort” (62% vs. 40%) and “someone engaged in social work” (45% vs. 25%), with which women identified more frequently than men.
Conclusions:
Strong identification as a member of a team is an important finding in the increasingly multiprofessional world of health care. Importantly, most physicians shared several core professional identity descriptions (i.e., helper, health expert) that reflect the traditional image of an exemplary doctor.
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