How clinical problem-based medical education sets the scene for social identity development in medical students.

In this article I examine how clinical problem-based medical education sets the scene for
social identity development in medical students. According to Crossley and Vivekananda-Schmidt (2009) social identity development relates to medical students’ professional
behaviour, acting and thinking and affects how medical students approach learning in
problem-based medical education. Therefore, it is important to gain new knowledge about
which social identities are at stake in problem-based medical education. I conducted an
ethnographic study at Aalborg University Hospital, involving 7 medical students for 240
hours of participant observation and 8 hours of semi-structured interviews. During the
analysis we were able to identify three prominent social identities that medical students either
assumed themselves or were assigned by professionals, peers and patients: Social identity as
medical student, as nearly physician, and as colleague