Professional identity

1. Finnish physicians'
professional
identities
Presenter: Pyry Mattila, University of
Eastern Finland
Authors: Pyry Mattila, Harri Hyppölä
et al.

2. • Professional identity is formed by one's interaction with
teachers, colleagues, patients and employers.
• There is little information about the diversity of the
identities of physicians.
• The aim of this study was to describe Finnish physicians’
identity.

3. • Professional identity was examined by
surveying 25 different fields.
• Respondents were asked how well
given characterizations fit them as a
physician, on a five-level scale.

5. Results
• The biggest difference between the sexes
were found in the descriptions “health
educator”, “comforter” and “prescriber”.
• “Prescriber”, “certificate writer” and
“prioritizer” concurred more often with
younger ages.
• 84% of physicians who worked at health
centers regarded themselves as
“listeners”, whereas only 57 % of
physicians who worked in hospitals felt
that way.

6. • It is important that physicians feel as if they are
“the helpers”.
• More negative identities concurred with younger
ages – could it be attributed to the generational
gap between physicians?
• Work sites have more influence on the physicians’
identity, more so than their gender or age group.
• The majority of physicians' share the traditional
identities of the profession.