Defining the Digital Self: A Qualitative Study to Explore the Digital Component of Professional Identity in the Health Professions
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Abstract
Background: Recent medical education literature pertaining to professional identity development fails to reflect the impact social media has on professional identity theory. Social media is transforming the field of medicine, as the web-based medium is now an avenue for professional development and socialization for medical students and residents. Research regarding identity development in social media has been primarily confined to electronic professionalism through best practice guidelines. However, this neglects other potential aspects pertinent to digital identity that have not yet been explored. Objective: This study aims to define the properties and development of the digital self and its interactions with the current professional identity development theory. Methods: A qualitative study was conducted using thematic analysis. A total of 17 participants who are social media education and knowledge translation experts were interviewed. The initial participants were from emergency medicine, and a snowball sampling method was used following their respective web-based semistructured interviews to enable global recruitment of other participants from interprofessional disciplines. The research team consisted of a diverse group of researchers including one current social media knowledge translation physician clinician educator, one postdoctoral researcher who is regularly engaged in social media knowledge translation, and 3 nonphysician research assistants who are not social media users. Half of the team conducted the initial coding and analysis, whereas the other 2 investigators audited the procedures followed. Results: A total of 4 themes were identified that pertain to digital identity. In the first theme, origins of initial digital identity formation were found to be derived from perceived needs in professional roles (eg, as a medical student or resident). The second theme consisted of the cultivation of digital identity, in which digital identity was developed parallel to professional identity. The third theme that emerged was the management between the professional and personal components of digital identity. Participants initially preferred keeping these components completely separate; however, attempts to do so were inadequate while the integration of both components provided benefits. The fourth theme was the management of real-life identity and digital identity. Participants preferred real-life identity to be wholly represented on the web. Instances of misalignment resulted in identity conflict, compromising one of the identities. Conclusions: Social media introduces new features to professional identity in the digital world. The formation of digital identity, its development, and reconciliation with other identities were features captured in our analysis. The virtual component of professional identity must not be neglected but instead further explored, as educational institutions continue to give more importance to navigating professional identity development.
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A total of 11 studies conducted in-depth or semistructured interviews, and 6 studies used focus groups.
“A total of 11 studies conducted in-depth or semistructured interviews [34,36,44,49,58,65,73,76,97,104,117], and 6 studies used focus groups [45,49,58,70,112,117].”
From Dangers and Benefits of Social Media on E-Professionalism of Health Care Professionals: Scoping Review (2021) · cites this paper as [104]
Professional networking and collaborations on social media enable development and building of professional identities for health care professions.
“Professional networking and collaborations on SM enable the development and building of professional identities for health care professions [34,38,39,45,67,73,104].”
From Dangers and Benefits of Social Media on E-Professionalism of Health Care Professionals: Scoping Review (2021) · cites this paper as [104]
Professional networking and collaborations on social media enable the development and building of professional identities for health care professions.
“Professional networking and collaborations on SM enable the development and building of professional identities for health care professions [34,38,39,45,67,73,104].”
From Dangers and Benefits of Social Media on E-Professionalism of Health Care Professionals: Scoping Review (2021) · cites this paper as [104]
Social media introduce new features to professional identity in the digital world.
“SM introduces new features to professional identity in the digital world.”
From Dangers and Benefits of Social Media on E-Professionalism of Health Care Professionals: Scoping Review (2021) · cites this paper as [104]
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Ruan, B., Yilmaz, Y., Lu, D., Lee, M., & Chan, T. M.
- Affiliations
- McMaster University (CA)
- University of British Columbia (CA)
- Corresponding author
- Chan, Teresa M
- Venue
- Journal of Medical Internet Research
- Publisher
- JMIR Publications Inc.
- Published
- 2020-09-29
- Volume
- 22
- Issue
- 9
- Pages
- e21416
- ISSN
- 1438-8871 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC7556376
- OpenAlex
- W3049290288
- Cited by
- 47
- References
- 47
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 12
- FWCI
- 3.73
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by
- Locations
- Journal of Medical Internet Research (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Health › Social Media in Health Education
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Innovations in Medical Education
- Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Diversity and Career in Medicine
- Keywords
- digital identity, professional identity formation, social media, health professions education, medical students, residents (medical training), identity conflict, online professionalism, emergency medicine
- MeSH terms
- Female, Health Occupations, Humans, Male, Qualitative Research, Social Media
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