Who are you and who do you want to be? Key considerations in developing professional identities in medicine

Medical educators have expressed concern that students' professional identities do not always align with their expectations or with professional standards. The authors propose that, in constructing appropriate professional identities, medical students today are affected by the competing discourses of diversity and standardization. Between March and May 2012, the authors conducted a critical review of seminal publications to highlight the discourses of diversity and standardization in the medical education literature. They surveyed the social sciences literature on identity construction and drew examples from medical education to demonstrate how a social constructionist approach could inform the discussion about how medical students' professional identities are affected by these discourses. The discourse of diversity emphasizes individuality, difference, and a plurality of possibilities and advances the notion that heterogeneity is beneficial to medical education and to patients. In contrast, the discourse of standardization strives for homogeneity, sameness, and a limited range of possibilities and conveys that there is a single way to be a competent, professional physician. Thus, these discourses are in tension, a fact that medical educators largely have ignored. A social constructionist approach to identity suggests that medical students resolve this tension in different ways and construct different identities as a result. To influence medical students' professional identity construction, the authors advocate that educators seek change across the profession-faculty must acknowledge and take advantage of the tension between the discourses of standardization and diversity.

Over 60% of UK medical students are female, yet only 33% of applicants to surgical training are women. Role modelling, differing educational experiences and disidentification in female medical students have been implicated in this disparity. We are yet to fully understand the mechanisms that link students' experiences with national trends in career choices. We employ a hitherto unused concept from the theory of communities of practice: paradigmatic trajectories. These are visible career paths provided by a community and are cited by Wenger as potentially the most influential factors shaping the learning of newcomers. We pioneer the use of this theoretical tool in answering the research question: How do paradigmatic trajectories shape female medical students' experiences of surgery and subsequent career intentions? This qualitative study comprised a secondary analysis of data sourced from 19 clinical medical students. During individual, in-depth, semi-structured interviews, we explored these students' experiences at medical school. We carried out thematic analysis using sensitising concepts from communities of practice theory, notably that of 'paradigmatic trajectories'. Female students' experiences of surgery were strongly gendered; they were positioned as 'other' in the surgical domain. Four key processes--seeing, hearing, doing and imagining--facilitated the formation of paradigmatic trajectories, on which students could draw when making career decisions. Female students were unable to see or identify with other women in surgery. They heard about challenges to being a female surgeon, lacked experiences of participation, and struggled to imagine a future in which they would be successful surgeons. Thus, based on paradigmatic trajectories constructed from exposure to surgery, they self-selected out of surgical careers. By contrast, male students had experiences of 'hands-in' participation and were not marginalised by paradigmatic trajectories. The concept of the paradigmatic trajectory is a useful theoretical tool with which to understand how students' experiences shape career decisions. Paradigmatic trajectories within surgery deter female students from embarking on careers in surgery. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.