Framework for Screening for Professional Identity Crisis in Future Healthcare Professionals

Introduction. The modern system of higher medical education places increased demands on the psycholog­ical stability of students, which frequently results in a professional identity crisis. This condition is manifest­ed by a loss of meaning in the profession, a decline in academic performance, and doubts about the validity of a career choice. Standardized criteria for the early detection of professional identity crisis, however, have not yet been established.

Objective. To develop and validate a framework for screening for a professional identity crisis in medical university students using a set of psychological indicators.

Materials and methods. The study involved 120 fourth through sixth-year students from the faculties of general medicine and pediatrics. The following instruments were used: the Purpose-in-Life Orientations Test (D.A. Leontiev), the Hardiness Scale by S. Maddi, the Ways of Coping Questionnaire by R. Lazarus, the method for studying learning motivation by T.I. Ilyina, and the author’s questionnaire for subjective assessment of the crisis. Statistical processing includ­ed comparative, cluster, and regression analyses.

Results. Using cluster analysis and subsequent discriminant testing, three groups of students were identified: “successful” (30.8%), who do not experience crisis; “students experiencing crisis but having high personal resources for overcoming it” (38.3%), who maintain meaning in life, active coping and intrinsic motivation; and students (30.8%) whose subjective experience of crisis is combined with profound existential, emotional and behavioral disorders. Predictors of the maladaptive form of crisis were low meaning in life (в = -0.38), low level of resilience (control, в = -0.27), avoidance coping (в = 0.22) and lack of intrinsic motivation (в = -0.19), collectively explaining 71.4% of the variance.

Conclusion. The developed screening tool help to early detect students in need of psychological support and to plan pre­ventive interventions on a case-by-vase basis.

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