Moving beyond professionalism: Pharmacy students understanding of professionalism and professional identity

Professional identity is who we are in the context of our chosen profession, a complex and dynamic process. The purpose of this study was to describe pharmacy students' understanding of the terms professionalism and professional identity and the elements of formal and informal curricular activities that may contribute to professional identity formation.

This anonymous cross-sectional survey was administered to pharmacy students in years one through five at all 10 Canadian pharmacy schools with the help of local Canadian Association of Pharmacy Students and Interns representatives. Students were first asked to define professionalism and professional identity and then were provided with a definition of professional identity to support their statements as to what experiences were meaningful in its development. Both an inductive and deductive approach were used for thematic analysis of written responses alongside descriptive statistics.

A total of 172 students responded. Most students were from the University of Alberta and were evenly distributed through years one through four of pharmacy. Key themes emerged of the traditional view of professionalism, expanding the six tenets defined by the American College of Clinical Pharmacy to include responsibility and accountability. Pharmacy students' definitions of professional identity more often included facets of professionalism, but when prompted acknowledged teaching related opportunities, professional development, and role-modelling as playing a key role in professional identity development.

Most pharmacy students were unable to formally define professional identity; however when prompted they did understand what it was and which experiences nurtured its development.