A Qualitative Study of Experiences Contributing to Professional Identity Formation in Recent Pharmacy Graduates.

Objective: A professional identity has been described as "an individual thinking, acting, and feeling" like a person within the profession. The objective of this study was to learn about professional identity formation (PIF) in recent graduates of a pharmacy program.

Methods: In-depth interviews were conducted with students graduating from a doctor of pharmacy degree program. Investigators performed a thematic content analysis of interview transcripts.

Results: Participants were from community pharmacy practice (4), residencies (4), industry (1), and ambulatory care (1). At the time of the interview, participants were a range of 5-13 months out from graduation. Analysis of the data revealed 4 thematic findings. First, thinking and acting like a pharmacist occurred frequently while in school but feeling like a pharmacist occurred mostly after graduation. Second, feeling like a pharmacist meant participants felt confident in their knowledge base and ability to independently make decisions. Third, real-world practice is critical to PIF, particularly through interactions with patients. Finally, feedback, mentoring, and reflection support PIF and can aid in reconciling the tensions between concepts taught in school and experiences in practice.

Conclusions: In this qualitative analysis of data about PIF obtained from recent graduates from a pharmacy school, we found that thinking and acting like a pharmacist preceded feeling like a pharmacist; feeling like a pharmacist involved confidence in the ability to work autonomously; feedback, mentoring, and reflection on experiences supported PIF; and real-world experiences were critical to PIF.