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Mirrors and prisms: How interprofessional interactions influence medical students' professional identity formation
Kelsey A Miller1, Adam P Sawatsky2, Andrea M Barker3
1Department of Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
Medical Education
|January 24, 2026
Summary
Interactions with other health professionals help medical students develop their professional identity, emphasizing collaboration and interdependence. This shapes how they see themselves as physicians and team members.
Area of Science:
- Medical Education
- Professional Identity Formation
- Interprofessional Collaboration
Background:
- Professional identity significantly influences physician collaboration and practice.
- Medical education increasingly emphasizes developing collaborative skills in students.
- The role of other health professionals (OHPs) in shaping medical students' professional identity formation (PIF) is under-researched.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explore how interactions with OHPs during clinical care influence medical students' construction of their physician identity.
- To understand the contribution of interprofessional experiences to medical students' PIF.
Main Methods:
- A constructivist grounded theory approach was used.
- 20 semi-structured interviews were conducted with medical students during clinical clerkships.
- Students used rich pictures to represent and discuss their interactions with OHPs.
Main Results:
- Interprofessional interactions provided opportunities for students to contribute to patient care, aligning with their capabilities.
- Collaboration with OHPs fostered a sense of belonging and developing capabilities within healthcare teams.
- Seeing OHP expertise shifted students' focus from independence towards collaboration and interdependence.
Conclusions:
- Interprofessional interactions positively influence medical students' current and future professional identities.
- These interactions highlight collaboration and interdependence as key physician attributes.
- Findings suggest amplifying interprofessional experiences in medical education and further research on OHP perspectives is needed.
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