Student to Practitioner Transition Flashcards
What are some challenges experienced by new grads when transitioning from a student to practitioner role?
Personal
- Fear and anxiety due to new responsibility, accountability, and expectations
- Grief over loss of safety net
Social
- Inter and intra-professional conflicts, lack of personal and professional acceptance, inadequate support
Job-related
- Volume of work, time constraints, unfamiliar or complex tasks or patients, working rotations, and terrible shift patterns
What are the implications of the challenges faced by new grads with respect to their transition into practitioners?
Learning and reflection
- Time and workload pressures. Unable to consolidate learnings through discussion with experienced peers
Performance
- A prescriptive way of working impairing ability to perform skilled tasks, problem-solve, and think critically
Patient care
- In the interest of fitting into work culture, new grads may compromise standards of care or not challenge decisions perceived as poor
What is workforce readiness?
It refers to the degree to new graduates possess the knowledge and skills deemed essential for practice (ex. communication, teamwork, problem-solving, resilience, and commitment to life-long learning)
What are some factors that enable workforce readiness?
Knowledge and skills
- Students believed their programs provided the necessary theoretical knowledge, and communication and cinical skills
Clinical placement experiences
- Seen by students as a key to developing the knowledge and skills needed to successfully transition to the work-force
Support from friends, family, peers, and faculty
- Friends who are recent grads, and HCP family members were seen as particularly helpful
Strong professional identity
What are some barriers to workforce readiness?
Academic workload
- Heavy academic workloads ehile on placement seen to prevent learning key clinical and technical skills
Health system and governance knowledge
- Lack of confidence in areas such as time management, and in meeting business targets and the expectations or other staff members
Why is the student to practitioner transition for pharmacists particularly difficult?
High variation in practice settings
Emphasis and preference for technical roles
Limited opportunities to take on new practice roles
The factors above create an environment incongruent with the skills and expectations of new graduates (expectations vs reality)
What is professional identity?
The professional values, actions, and aspirations espoused by the individual pharmacist, as well as those observed by others within the profession
What are the three identity formation theories?
- Individual
- Interactional
- Institutional
What is individual identity theory?
Identity is constructed in the mind of each individual and therefore unique
We pass through many identities from infancy to adulthood
We transition between each identity due to a crisis that causes reflection and change (change is abrupt)
What is interactional identity theory?
Based on how individuals present themselves to others, and how others interpret this representation
Identity is co-created by the person and those they encounter
What is institutional identity theory?
The manner by which organizations and their cultures affect identity
Upon entry-to-practice, a business or corporate model of practice is dominant
A disconnect between what is desired and what is available results in a crisis for the new practitioner
What is the purpose of a strong professional identity?
Maintain or advance professional status in times of changing scopes of practice (less willing to accept dispensing status quo)
Self-regulate one’s behaviour in a manner that supports high professional standards
Have the confidence needed to practice effectively, and in the way we prefer
What program modifications can improve professional identity among students?
Opportunities for self-reflection (assessment)
Opportunities for authentic role playing (labs)
Meaningful experiential learning (practicums)
Patient-facing faculty/preceptors (role models)
What are some factors that can help improve professional identity among recent graduates?
Supportive practice settings
- Allow you to practice in a way that reflects your professional identity
Strong mentoring/role models
- Both inspirational and aspirational
Active peer support
- Provide collegiality and re-enforcement of professional values and behaviours
