Professionalism and professional identity formation in dental students: Revisiting the professional role orientation inventory (PROI)

Abstract

Objective Professionalism is a hallmark of health professions education. Professional identity formation is a growing field of exploration in medical education, and the dental literature is sparse on just how professional identity formation is developed and assessed within dental education. Methods The validated professional role orientation inventory (PROI) was administered to 2nd year dental students during a spring semester ethics course. The PROI includes four 10‐item scales representing four attitudinal factors: Authority, Responsibility, Agency, and Autonomy. Results When compared to a historical sample of dental students in the early 1990s, dental students today scored significantly higher on Responsibility (p = 0.0309) and lower on the Agency factor (p = 0.0001). Authority scores in the current sample of dental students were significantly associated with age and race, with an increase in age associated with a decrease in Authority (p = 0.0504) and Caucasian respondents demonstrating significantly higher scores than Asian or Other races. Debt was associated with differences in Autonomy (p = 0.0683) and Agency (p = 0.0106), with those in the 100k–300k anticipated debt range demonstrating lower levels of both Autonomy and Agency. Race was marginally associated with Responsibility with those in the Other race category (Hispanic, Black/African American, Other/Multiracial) demonstrating higher levels than Caucasian (p = 0.0513). Conclusion Dental students' scores denote a continued commitment to others yet a feeling of less sense of control as a practicing professional. A redefining of professionalism to include social activism and advancing health equity is required given their altruism and commitment to others, which remains high.

Contemporary dental student professionalism: moving towards a macro-level perspective

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Climbing the Ladder in Crafting A Professionalism Framework for Nursing Students in South Africa

“…Professionalism is a concept that stands out in the education of the health professions of every student, including nursing students, pursuing careers such as nursing as a profession [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]. However, the complexity and attempts to define and describe the concept have been vague and educational strategies over the years have been less effective in inculcating the expected professional behavior in students [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11].…”