The tension between identity and competency: Comparing behavioural and constructionist approaches to professional formation

Abstract

Contemporary approaches to medical education emphasize the importance of doctors in training demonstrating the acquisition of competencies. This approach to educating doctors has been criticized on a number of grounds, not least because a solely behavioural focus risks trivializing medical professionalism. An alternative approach is to look at the formation of professional identity as a legitimate goal of training.

In this presentation, I will describe the behavioural and constructionist approaches to medical education and their implications for psychiatry training. I will make a plea for psychiatry training to renegotiate the balance between the two approaches.

Disclosure of interest

The author has not supplied his declaration of competing interest.