McMaster Education Research, Innovation, and Theory (MERIT), Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada.
Department of Medical Education, Faculty of Medicine, Ege University, Izmir, Turkey.
J Med Internet Res. 2020 Sep 29;22(9):e21416. doi: 10.2196/21416.
Recent medical education literature pertaining to professional identity development fails to reflect the impact social media has on professional identity theory. Social media is transforming the field of medicine, as the web-based medium is now an avenue for professional development and socialization for medical students and residents. Research regarding identity development in social media has been primarily confined to electronic professionalism through best practice guidelines. However, this neglects other potential aspects pertinent to digital identity that have not yet been explored.
This study aims to define the properties and development of the digital self and its interactions with the current professional identity development theory.
A qualitative study was conducted using thematic analysis. A total of 17 participants who are social media education and knowledge translation experts were interviewed. The initial participants were from emergency medicine, and a snowball sampling method was used following their respective web-based semistructured interviews to enable global recruitment of other participants from interprofessional disciplines. The research team consisted of a diverse group of researchers including one current social media knowledge translation physician clinician educator, one postdoctoral researcher who is regularly engaged in social media knowledge translation, and 3 nonphysician research assistants who are not social media users. Half of the team conducted the initial coding and analysis, whereas the other 2 investigators audited the procedures followed.
A total of 4 themes were identified that pertain to digital identity. In the first theme, origins of initial digital identity formation were found to be derived from perceived needs in professional roles (eg, as a medical student or resident). The second theme consisted of the cultivation of digital identity, in which digital identity was developed parallel to professional identity. The third theme that emerged was the management between the professional and personal components of digital identity. Participants initially preferred keeping these components completely separate; however, attempts to do so were inadequate while the integration of both components provided benefits. The fourth theme was the management of real-life identity and digital identity. Participants preferred real-life identity to be wholly represented on the web. Instances of misalignment resulted in identity conflict, compromising one of the identities.
Social media introduces new features to professional identity in the digital world. The formation of digital identity, its development, and reconciliation with other identities were features captured in our analysis. The virtual component of professional identity must not be neglected but instead further explored, as educational institutions continue to give more importance to navigating professional identity development.
最近有关专业身份发展的医学教育文献未能反映社交媒体对专业身份理论的影响。社交媒体正在改变医学领域，因为网络媒体现在是医学生和住院医师职业发展和社交的途径。关于社交媒体中身份发展的研究主要局限于通过最佳实践指南实现电子专业精神。然而，这忽略了其他尚未探索的与数字身份相关的潜在方面。
本研究旨在定义数字自我的属性和发展及其与当前专业身份发展理论的相互作用。
采用主题分析法进行定性研究。共采访了 17 名社交媒体教育和知识转化专家作为参与者。最初的参与者来自急诊医学专业，采用滚雪球抽样法，在他们各自的基于网络的半结构化访谈之后，允许从跨专业学科中招募其他参与者。研究团队由包括一名当前社交媒体知识转化医师临床教育家在内的多样化研究人员组成，一名经常从事社交媒体知识转化的博士后研究员，以及 3 名非社交媒体用户的非医师研究助理。团队的一半成员进行了初始编码和分析，而另外 2 名调查员审核了所遵循的程序。
确定了与数字身份相关的 4 个主题。在第一个主题中，发现最初的数字身份形成起源于专业角色中的感知需求（例如，作为医学生或住院医师）。第二个主题是数字身份的培养，其中数字身份与专业身份平行发展。出现的第三个主题是专业和个人数字身份组件之间的管理。参与者最初更喜欢将这些组件完全分开；然而，尝试这样做是不够的，而同时整合这两个组件则提供了好处。第四个主题是现实生活身份和数字身份的管理。参与者更喜欢在网络上完全代表现实生活身份。身份不一致的情况导致身份冲突，从而损害其中一个身份。
社交媒体在数字世界中为专业身份带来了新的特征。我们的分析中捕捉到了数字身份的形成、其发展以及与其他身份的协调。虚拟的专业身份组成部分不容忽视，而应进一步探索，因为教育机构继续更加重视引导专业身份发展。
