Jessica Maisonneuve
Pronouns: she/her/hers
Research Mentor(s): Vitaliy Popov
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Department of Learning Health Sciences / Medicine
Program: UROP
Session: Session 6 (3:40pm – 4:30pm)
Authors: Jessica Nicole Maisonneuve, Quinn Cassar, Kiera Butler, Vitaliy Popov , Mark Fitzgerald , Vidya Ramaswamy
Abstract
Formation of professional identity of dental students plays a significant role in their life-long learning, development of clinical competence and understanding of social and professional responsibilities in the field of dentistry. This mixed-methods study examines whether reflective essays of the dental students’ learning experience during clinical rotations over one academic year can be used to measure the difficult construct of professional identity development. As part of their 4th year curriculum, dental students (n=127) spend 4 weeks per semester immersed in clinical care at community-based clinics dedicated to providing oral health care for underserved populations. Following each rotation, students complete a reflective assignment in response to a trigger prompt designed to guide the students to consider their professional role and obligations in the provision of oral health care. Prompts for the first rotation experience guide the student to focus on their understanding of social determinants of health and their impact. Second rotation prompts students to an assessment of how their own biases or attitudes may impact their ability to provide person-centered care and third rotation prompts direct reflection on their experiences with IPC (Interprofessional Collaborative Care) and how they plan to incorporate IPC into their future practice. Reflective essays from the graduating class of 2020 were used to assess development of professional identity. A team of 3 trained coders used an inductive and stepwise approach to generate a coding system with the key contributors to student professional identity development. A total of 33 randomly selected essays were used to generate and refine the coding scheme. This project is currently continuing to analyze data and refine the coding scheme before applying it to the remaining dataset. This project has made an important contribution thus far concerning the key contributors to their professional identity development that influence dental students specifically. Six main codes were distinguished: Understanding of Patients (perspective-taking), Understanding of Ethics, Perceived Confidence in one’s Competence to Perform, Motivation to Profession, Influences on Learning and Growth, and Interprofessional care in Relation to Professional development. Reflective essays of the dental students’ learning experience during clinical rotations proved to be an effective measure of professional identity development. These preliminary results indicate the change in knowledge, skills and attitudes that the students exhibited towards both their patients and skills while displaying an expanded interest towards their career.
