When Faculty Tell Tales: How Faculty Members’ Reflective Narratives Impact Residents’ Professional Identity Formation

Most training programs have focused on the explicit teaching of professionalism, an approach that has seen limited success, to transform trainees into physicians. It is possible that faculty members' reflective narratives, if appropriately shared with trainees, can facilitate the processes of reflection and socialization and help shift the training paradigm toward supporting professional identity formation. In May 2010, an online forum, where faculty could share personal reflective narratives with all residents and faculty via email, was created for the National University Health System's internal medicine residency program. By 2016, 40 letters had been written and nearly 200 residents and 30 faculty members had read these. This repository of faculty members' reflective narratives touches on a broad range of issues related to professionalism, including altruism, humanism, excellence, and accountability. In February 2017, the authors conducted semistructured focus group discussions with 20 residents to explore the impact of faculty members' reflective narratives on their professional identity development. Residents reported that narratives, if written by authors who were recognized as role models, triggered the processes of reflection and socialization; were more effective in provoking reflection if they resonated with residents' experiences; inspired them to follow how their role models reflected on and coped with challenges; and influenced the culture of the workplace, impacting the residents' daily experiences and leading to socialization and development of their professional identity. These early observations on the role of faculty members' reflective narratives highlight the importance of credible role models, the daily work experience, and the culture of the workplace and provide information educators could use to more effectively support trainees' professional identity formation as they design curricula. Among other things, future studies should explore the role and effectiveness of faculty members' reflective narratives in different educational contexts.