Medical Residents Viewpoint about the Effective Stressors on Professional Identity Formation during Residency in Tehran University of Medical Sciences: A Qualitative Study

摘要

Introduction: Professional identity, or how a doctor thinks of himself or herself as a doctor, is considered to be as critical to medical education as the acquisition of skills and knowledge relevant to patient care. As stress can affect learning, it can be considered as one the factors influencing the formation of professional identity during the training of physicians. According to existing evidences, transition undergraduate level to post-graduate and residency level is most stress course in medical education. Therefore, the aim of this study is to determine the effective stressors on professional identity formation from residents’ viewpoint in Tehran University of medical sciences. Method and Materials: 17 residents (male and female) aged 26-40 years old were participated in this study which was done by qualitative content analysis method. A purposeful sampling was conducted in 4 specialty hospitals affiliated to Tehran University of medical sciences. Data was collected by semi-structured in-depth interviews and was analyzed by conventional content analysis. Result: According the results, the main categories were discipline-specific stress, Interpersonal relationship stress, Personal stressors, Educational Climate stress and subcategories were including, Gender preference stress in some disciplines, Nature of profession, lack of specialty knowledge, Occurrence of medical error, Curriculum-related issues, Failure to have effective communicate, Linguistic and culture differences, Conflict between Personality characteristics and specialty, Work-life imbalance due to multiple roles and responsibilities, working atmosphere (situation-long hours), Ineffective residency support. Conclusion: Determining the occupational stress and managing them can prevent the negative impacts on the professional identity formation of residents and their daily life. The results of this paper can be considered in residency’s training programs and coping with negative stressors in order to train the specialists with professional identity by managers and trainers.