A Narrative Inquiry Of Physicians' Professional Development

The health care sector is a major livelihood issue, as it is closely related to the health of billions of people and the happiness of every household. Since the beginning of the opening-up and the medical reform in particular. China's health care sector has made remarkable achievements. At the same time, however, we must be aware that there are still rather prominent problems like "soaring medical costs", "heavy individual burden", as well as doctor-patient relationship nervous.Under such background, Chinese researchers have got interested in physicians as a professional group for many years. Multi-perspective researches about medical education, continuing medical education, medical talent growth, occupational stress, job burnout, ethics, and doctor-patient relationship emerged. However, systematical research on physicians' professional development is still missing. This research, which is also based on China's unique medical environment, focuses on professional development of physicians, and tries to probe into the construction process of physicians' professional identity and the interaction between professional identity and professional development.This research followed the methodology of narrative inquiry.6 physicians from several public hospitals were formally interviewed, and one of them was chosen as the narrator. Other medical care personnel, physicians' friends and family members, medical managers, medical students, patients and patients' family members were informally interviewed. Besides, abundant site materials were collected through both participant observation and mass media. Independent text explanation method was adopted. Text explanation framework including life story narrative explanation, "entirety-format" explanation, "entirety-content" explanation, and "category-content" explanation was used. The theoretical framework adopted theories of narratology and Goffman's symbolic interactions theory, and both stories and opinions were explained in detail. Main findings of this research are as follows:A) "Self rhetoric" is a part of physicians' professional identity. B) Physicians" professional identity is constructed during the process of the interaction of multiple subjects. The mechanism of physicians' professional identity operates by the interaction of role deviation and behaviors that trying to modify the deviation. C) An "identity-directed professional development model" merged from the case, which shows that professional identity is the real start point of individual's professional development, and professional development is to some extent a by-product of the construction process of professional identity. D) "White-dress angle on the balance beam" and "Round dance of lights and shadows" are metaphors for the shape of Chinese physicians' professional development, showing vividly how professional knowledge and techniques are "garbed" by "role play"...