Transforming Relationships, Transforming Self: Professional Identity Formation in Nutrition and Exercise Physiology Clinic

• In Event: Fairmont Roundtable Session Seventeen
  In Roundtable Session: Navigation and Transformation in Professional Identity Formation (Table 18)

Abstract

Professional identity formation in students of many disciplines, especially in the health sciences, has recently gained much attention. However, there is minimal data on this identity formation in nutrition and exercise physiology students, a unique subset with diverse backgrounds and career goals. In the undergraduate degree program studied, students develop longitudinal relationships with community clients in a free nutrition and exercise clinic. The results of student interviews about their clinical experiences were synthesized into an understanding of professional identity formation through the evolution of student relationships with clients, with the profession, and with themselves, against the backdrop of the most important part: a learning environment that felt like a safe space to make mistakes.

Authors

• Kristina Lindquist, Washington State University - Spokane
  Non-Presenting Author

• Anna Crowley, Washington State University
  Presenting Author