Critical Foundations in Health Disciplines – Honing My Professional Identity

The National League for Nursing (2014) defines professional identity as including both personal and professional development and It involves the internalization of core values and perspectives recognized as integral to the art and science of health care.

Joynes (2018) explains that health care professionals are trained to their own regulatory body’s professional standards to be able to perform their own roles, and carry out profession-specific tasks in line with their healthcare organizations' requirements. I am an Environmental Public Health Professional (EPHP) and as such I have been trained to the Canadian Institute of Public Health Inspectors professional standards. Roles and tasks include providing advice, guidance, education, public health inspections and recommendations to the First Nations I serve and their leadership to help manage public health risks associated with the environment (Health Canada 2008). As a member of CIPHI (2022), the institution ensures professional development of its members by requiring EPHPs to demonstrate continued competency following certification. To do this CIPHI has a continuing professional competencies program to facilitate the professional recognition of CPHI(C) holders like myself, to keep them abreast of continuing developments in the field of environmental public health, and to support their continued professional development. So I have always felt that I have been keeping up with my professional development but have not given much thought to my personal development.

Indeed (2022) describes personal development as “the ongoing act of assessing your life goals and values and building your skills and qualities to reach your potential. They can contribute to your maturity, success and satisfaction.” One of the ways to build one’s personal development is through education. By me taking my Master of Health Studies at Athabasca University I am definitely doing just that. Personal development involves skills that can be soft or technical. I am learning and honing those personal development skills in MHST 601- Critical Foundations in Health Disciplines. Weather it is my communication, organization, work ethic, etc., the soft skills I am improving on is giving me the self-confidence to become a good leader my chosen profession. I have also been gaining technical skills by working in a virtual environment and establishing an on-line presence. An excellent example of this is the development of an e-portfolio and this blog which I have not done before.

As I am learning along with a diverse group of health care professionals in MHST 601, it has brought to the forefront for me, the interconnectedness of health care professionals and that we are all duty-bound to work in a collaborative way to provide the best possible care for our clients. Joynes (2018) also states that in today’s health care, professionals must “work in an interprofessional way while maintaining their own discrete professional identity”. But like with many things in life my professional identity is a work in progress.

References

CIPHI. (2022). Continuing Professional Development. Retrieved May 30, 2022, from https://ciphi.ca/professional-development/

Health Canada. (2008). First Nations: Environmental Public Health Program. Retrieved May 27, 2022, from https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/hc-sc/migration/hc-sc/fniah-spnia/alt_formats/fnihb-dgspni/pdf/pubs/promotion/2009_env_prog-eng.pdf

Indeed. (2022). 9 Ways to Improve Your Personal Development Skills. Retrieved May 30, 2022, from https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/improve-your-personal-development-skills

Joynes, V.C. (2018). Defining and understanding the relationship between professional identity and interprofessional responsibly: implications for educating health and social care students. Advances in Health Sciences Education. Retrieved May 30, 2022, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5801384/#CR33

National League for Nursing. (2014). Practical/Vocational Nursing Program Outcome: Professional Identitiy. Retrieved May 30, 2022, from https://www.nln.org/docs/default-source/uploadedfiles/default-document-library/professional-identity-final.pdf?sfvrsn=a6c6df0d_0