Professionalism in workplace learning:Understanding interprofessional dilemmas through healthcare student narratives

Healthcare students learn professionalism and how to become professionals through the formal, informal and hidden curriculum. This chapter begins by utilising theoretical and research literature to introduce the concepts of healthcare professionalism, professional identities and interprofessional learning. It draws on an exemplar narrative from an extensive research programme exploring healthcare students’ lived experiences of professionalism dilemmas to demonstrate how students make sense of their experiences and developing identities through narratives of interprofessional dilemmas. The chapter concludes by discussing the interweaving of professional identity formation and interprofessional hierarchies, roles and conflicts, and what this means for the education of healthcare students so they are better prepared for the interprofessional healthcare workplace