Professional Identity Formation in Health Promotion Practitioners: Students’ Perspectives during an Undergraduate Program in Switzerland

Abstract

The health promotion (HP) community advocates for capacity building, quality assurance and political awareness of HP. Professional identity (PI) is of great relevance to these goals as persons who strongly identify with their profession better adopt their professional role, raising the quality, competence and common values within a professional group. However, investigations on the HP workforce are missing. In order to investigate PI formation in HP professionals, a longitudinal study was conducted with two student cohorts of a Swiss HP and prevention undergraduate program. Using a qualitative approach, focus groups were conducted at the beginning and end of the undergraduate program. Data were transcribed verbatim and condensed using thematic analysis. The results highlight the complexity of the HP’s professional profile. While students experienced difficulties to capture the profile at the beginning of the program, at the end they developed an understanding of it. The practical experience within work placements helped students to grasp the profile and specify their future professional role. Several behavioral, cognitive and motivational aspects were identified that influence HP students’ PI formation and can be fostered. For instance, universities can commit to public relations for HP practitioners and support the PI formation throughout the study program.

Embedding experiential learning in undergraduate health promotion curriculum

“…Furthermore, embedding the IUHPE Core Competencies into CHP provides students with greater recognition and validation of health promotion as a profession that enables them to articulate the knowledge and skills they have acquired from their hands‐on learning experience when constructing job applications 25 . The practical hands‐on experience in health promotion projects also contributes to students forming a professional identity as future health promotion practitioners 26,27 . Students' experiential learning experience could be expanded by facilitating students' participation in professional associations such as the Australian Health Promotion Association and the IUHPE Student and Early Career Network to introduce students to the association's goals, the profession's standards, ethical principles and code of conduct.…”

“…25 The practical hands-on experience in health promotion projects also contributes to students forming a professional identity as future health promotion practitioners. 26,27 The adjustment to virtual learning for CHP students was particularly demanding as the familiar environment of a classroom that facilitated peer-to-peer learning and group work was unavailable. In addition, with pandemic lockdown restrictions in place, students were constrained in the type of projects they could implement and there were scarce project sponsors able to offer face-to-face project opportunities, thus online projects were the only viable option.…”

The blacksmith approach: a strategy for teaching and learning in the medical anatomy course (a qualitative study)

“…The thematic content analysis includes six stages: [1] familiarizing with data, [2] generating the initial codes, [3] searching for themes, [4] reviewing the themes, (the various codes were compared based on similarities and differences in meaning and were categorized together) [5] defining and naming themes, and [6] preparing the report [41,42].…”

“…Secondly, the teachers should acquire a mindful clinical standpoint, i.e., developing good clinical knowledge and adopting active learning methods based on teamwork and clinical scenarios that encourage active participation and self-directed learning as if they are future doctors. This strategy has been shown to reduce student stress [11,13] and help them react better as future physicians [3,8,48].…”

“…A challenging question facing medical education is how to change some young students into responsible and resilient professional physicians. Most of the answers are being placed in clinical years; however, we can begin the transition process earlier with a promising tool called anatomy [3,4].…”