Professional Development
The purpose of this assignment is to explore the development of your professional identity. In 1,250-1,500 words, address the following:
Distinguish between professional identity and personal identity and explain how both your professional and personal identities are influenced by your Christian worldview.
Discuss the components of a successful professional identity. Reflect on the professional identity you have created thus far. Which components do you feel you are still lacking?
Explain the relationship between professionalism and integrity. Discuss how professionalism and integrity relate to self-confidence in health care administration.
This assignment requires a minimum of three to five peer-reviewed references.
Sample Answer
Distinguish between professional identity and personal identity and explain how both your professional and personal identities are influenced by your Christian worldview.
Professional identity refers to one’s perception of oneself in connection to a career and membership in that profession. Professional identity is defined by an individual’s views and attitudes, values, motivations, and experiences in their current or prospective professional life. It also includes values, beliefs, attitudes, skills, and knowledge that individuals share with others in the same profession. Professional identity affects how one relates with others in their career, especially those that they serve. In contrast, personal identity is commonly referred to as the personal image of a person. It includes a person’s beliefs about themselves and how they are different from other people. Personal identity changes over time as individual advances in age, and its uniqueness is influenced by several factors, including one’s abilities and personality traits, moral code and belief system, and other motivational factors. The Christian worldview significantly influences both professional and personal identity (Matthews et al., 2019).
The Christian worldview holds that God is supreme and that human beings are created in his image and likeness. Given this, all human beings have an intrinsic value and should thus be treated with respect and accorded dignity despite their status. The Christian worldview influences both my personal and professional identity. Professional identity determines how I relate to other people and how I fulfill my duties and responsibilities at work. In healthcare, the goal is to improve the quality of life of the patients and community in general; given the worldview that the patients are created in the image of God, it requires I adopt values that such as compassion, ethical practice, commitment to integrity, and excellence and respect for all human beings towards my colleagues and the patients. I take my profession as an opportunity to serve people and improve their experiences here on earth by ensuring they are healthy. The Christian worldview is also essential in determining what practices I engage in and those I should not engage in. For example, the Christian worldview advocates for ethical practices and discourages unethical practices that harm the patients or the community. The Christian worldview contributes significantly to my identity. It holds that as human beings, I have an intrinsic value that is not determined by my profession, economic status and material possessions, cultural background, and even gender. This helps me understand that I am more than just my professional definition and the things that I possess and that my value is not dependent on external material things but on the fact that I am created in God’s image and likeness (Rieg et al., 2018).
Discuss the Components of a Successful Professional Identity
Professional identity is essential in the delivery of safe and quality care in the healthcare industry. Some of the components of successful professional identity include reflection, professional socialization, mentoring, critical thinking and self-efficacy, and goal orientation. Traditionally reflection was used to assist in solving problems; however, nowadays, reflection is used to develop a professional identity. Research has shown that reflection leads to improved cognition, knowledge building, feelings of professionalism, and professional maturity. Reflection helps to anchor new concepts to the previous learning and challenge assumptions that encourage new perspectives. There are three types of reflection: reflection in action, reflection for action, and reflection on action. Reflection allows one to define their professional beliefs and values, which contributes to developing a professional identity. Professional socialization refers to the sense of belonging to a professional community and being accepted into that community. For a person to have a successful personal identity, they need to feel that they belong to the professional community they are in and are accepted by their peers. Professional socialization contributes to a sense of belonging that internalizes the beliefs, values, and attitudes of a profession and promotes innovation, pride, and confidence, leading to the development of a professional identity (Chin et l., 2020).
Critical thinking also contributes to the development of a successful professional identity. Critical thinking refers to the ability to analyze a problem objectively to arrive at a solution. Critically thinking about one’s profession, for example, the kind of a professional one is currently and what one wants to be in the future, contributes to a better understanding and development of an individual’s professional identity. Mentoring is a crucial component of successful professional identity; it is a relationship where an experienced mentor acts as a guide for the less experienced mentee and provides advice and knowledge, support, and challenges them to advance their skills. The role played by mentors is crucial in developing a professional identity as it assists the mentees in developing professional competence, which is essential in the development of professional identity. Self-efficacy and goal orientation refer to the self-confidence to complete tasks to one’s expectations given the prevailing circumstances. Goal orientation focuses on why individuals strive for specific outcomes. Goal orientation and self-efficacy contribute to motivation, job satisfaction, and performance which affects professional identity (Chin et l., 2020).
Reflect on the professional identity you have created thus far. Which components do you feel you are still lacking?
Some of the professional identity components that are still lacking include professional socialization and mentoring. I need to link up with more individuals in my profession for mentorship into the field and interact with more individuals in the profession to better understand how things work and gain that sense of belonging and acceptance into the profession.
Explain the relationship between professionalism and integrity.
Integrity is referred to as the quality of having strong moral principles and the attribute of being honest with others. A person of integrity will always do the right thing and acts ethically even when they are not being observed. Professionalism is commonly referred to as the act of adhering to the set standards, code of conduct, and qualities that define the accepted practice within a specific profession. Therefore, integrity is a major component of professionalism, without which a person cannot practice professionalism. A strong moral principle and honesty ensure that individuals follow the set code of conduct and maintain the standards of practice, regarded as professionalism (Coverdale et al., 2016).
