Professional Identity of Medical Students of Malaysia: Influence of Demographic Factors

Abstract

Introduction: In medical education one of the main goal is to facilitate the development of professional identity of medical students. It is influenced by sociocultural factors whose influence has been examined by the empirical scholarship on professional identity research in a robust way. The current research studied the influence of gender, ethnicity and year of study on the professional identity of medical students using a validated instrument. Methods: The quantitative research approach using the cross sectional survey design is adopted in the present study. The instrument for the measurement of professional identity was developed using the items adapted from previous research. Stratified random sampling was used to collect the data from 318 participants. The reliability and construct validity of the instrument was evaluated using Smart PLS 3. Data was analysed, for descriptive and inferential statistics using SPSS version 26. Result: Ethnicity, gender and year of study had an impact on the professional identity of medical students. Indian ethnicity had significantly higher positive influence. The female students had higher professional identity than male medical students. As the students’ progressed to higher level of their training their professional identity progressively decreased. Conclusion: The medical students trained with similar curricular activities and the learning experiences develop different levels of professional identity. The level of professional identity developed by the medical students in deferent gender, ethnicity, and year of study differes. The sociocultural factors need to be considered when designing activities aimed at development of medical students’ professional identity.