Continuing our series on Professional Identity and Medicines Development, we welcome the publication of another great essay from a graduate of our 2022 cohort, Eser Adiguzel.

Eser Adiguzel entered the pharmaceutical industry in Medical Affairs in Canada after a decade in private healthcare and consulting. Her demonstrated leadership resulted in rapid career growth to leading the US medical team and to her current role leading the global medical affairs team and medical launch strategy in a priority therapeutic area.

“Discuss Professional Identity and the Sense of Purpose in Medicines Development and their relevance for professionals involved in the field.”

Eser Adiguzel, PhD, CMD
Eser Adiguzel, PhD, CMD

Professional identity developed with a strong sense of purpose can pave the way for success of Medical Affairs professionals in Medicines Development. Paraphrasing Goltz and Smith, professional identity can be defined as a self-constructed alignment of roles, responsibilities, values, and ethical standards unique to a given profession. However, as discussed on the psychology, a professional identity is a social construct and unique to a given individual and is not only how they see themselves as a professional, but also how they are seen by others. An individual’s upbringing, environment, and experiences will help shape their personal identity, which combined with their attitude, value system, education, work experiences, roles and responsibilities, and professional training will aid in shaping their professional identity.

Similar to Erikson’s theory of personal identity vs. role confusion whereby adolescents form their identity by asking themselves “Who am I?” and “What can I be?”, professional identity can be thought of as asking oneself “Who am I as a professional?” Also pivotal to the development of professional identity is a sense of purpose. Occasionally, professionals may rely upon their employers or their businesses to define their professional identity. However, having a professional identity thrust upon oneself may lead to career dissatisfaction and an overwhelming sense of languishing, or the feeling that one is either stuck or feels unsuccessful, despite adequate work performance. Ogunjimi discusses in his 2016 LinkedIn article the power of intentionally defining one’s professional identity, and how this can help an individual achieve success by attracting transformational opportunities, defining the strategy to achieve industry leadership and specialization, building a personal brand, and verifying how close they are to their aspirations. In intentionally defining one’s professional identity, it is critical to self-reflect on how one wants to be seen as a professional. However, to reach true satisfaction from a professional identity, it should be tied to a sense of purpose or an aspirational and inspirational reason for being. This purpose goes beyond simply working to earn an income, but marrying work to things that impart personal motivation, fulfillment, and enjoyment. Patruno defines purpose as the reason WHY something is done or exists and discusses his high level of career satisfaction as his passion, purpose, and professional identity are highly aligned. However, as discussed in the GMDP  Academy video, 90% of people are not connected with their purpose and professional identity, which results not only in dissatisfaction in careers but potentially also disengagement in those around them. By connecting purpose to professional identity, one can reach increased trust, collaboration, connection, engagement, and pride and joy in their work. As Medical Affairs professionals in Medicines Development, many may share a common sense of purpose to improving health outcomes or quality of life for patients in creating and delivering better medicines. Understanding and identifying an individual’s sense of purpose helps to identify how to engage in their profession in a way which is meaningful and fulfilling to them and leads the way to purposeful professional identity development. As Jill Donahue discusses, one can help to create a purpose-driven professional identity by asking themselves why they have chosen to be a Medical Affairs professional, what makes them proud, where do their desires to help others come from, and who do they ultimately want to help? Answering these questions can help Medical Affairs professionals to be excited in their career paths, find personal fulfillment and career satisfaction, engage those around them, and ultimately be beneficial for society.

References

  1. Academy, I. (Accessed November 2022). Retrieved from The Power of Purpose and Professional Identity in Medicines Development: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIBSulHnHb8
  2. Academy, I. (Accessed November 2022). Retrieved from The Power of Purpose and Professional Identity in Medicines Development: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIBSulHnHb8
  3. Donahue, J. (Accessed November 2022). Power of Purpose. Retrieved from YouTube: https://ifappacademy.instructure.com/courses/209/assignments/2323?module_item_id=5749
  4. Erikson, E. H. (1968). Identity, youth, and crisis. New York, W. W. Norton.
  5. Goltz, H. H., & Smith, M. L. (2014). Forming and Developing Your Professional Identity – Easy as PI. Health Promotion Practice, 15(6), 785-789. doi:10.1177/1524839914541279
  6. Ogunjimi, G. (2016, July 12). Retrieved from 5 Reasons you should define your professional identity by yourself: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/5-reasons-you-should-define-your-professional-gbengaogunjimi/
  7. Patruno, J. E. (Accessed November 2022). Passion, Purpose, and Professional Identity. Retrieved from Lehigh Valley Health Network – A Passion for Better Medicine: https://scholarlyworks.lvhn.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1378&context=progress_notes
  8. Professional Identity. (Accessed November 2022). Retrieved from Psychology4U: https://psychology4u.net/psychology/professional-identity

Disclaimers

  • The material in these reviews is from various public open access sources, meant for educational and informational purposes only
  • Any personal opinions expressed are those of only the author(s) and are not intended to represent the position of any organization(s)
  • No official support by any organization(s) has been provided or should be inferred