Professional identity: making sense of repertory grids
Julie Ellis-Scheer
Discipline of Public Health, School of Health and Human Sciences, La Trobe
University, Bendigo (Australia)
Abstract
The personal constructions nurses have of their professional identity
may deviate from the published statements of bodies and associations representing
the nursing profession and of that written by nursing theorists. The personal
constructions may be rooted in their individual life experience and in
their relationship to other people, especially those associated with the
areas of helping others and caring for them. The principal aim of this
project was to explore these personnl views using a methodology adequate
for the possibly idiosyncratic nature of these views. The individual-oriented
technique used was the Repertory Grid Technique as devised by G. Kelly
(1955, 1990). This technique allows for both quantitative and qualitative
analysis of data.
The constructs elicited were divided into three groups according to
their content. They were: Concern for Others, Professional Competency and
Personal Quality. There was a statistically significant difference between
students' and experts' use of constructs allocated to the 3 themes, with
respect to their "Ideal Self as a Nurse". For the students, the Ideal was
characterized by Concern for Others constructs, whereas the experts used
Professional Competency constructs.
Data from the repertory grid was analysed using hermeneutical methods,
to arrive at a "Pro-fessional Identity Orientation" for each nurse. Comparisons
of "Self" and "Ideal Self" resulted in identification of nurses who had
already successfully achieved their "Professional Identity orientation".
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