‘Your head can literally be spinning’: A qualitative study of general practice supervisors’ professional identity

Abstract

Background and objectives Supervisors have an integral and demanding role in general practice vocational training. Becoming a supervisor involves expanding a ‘clinician’ professional identity to include ‘supervisor’. Little is known about what contributes to the development of supervisor identity; knowing this could inform effective training and support. This study explored the experiences and perceptions of supervisors to understand what contributes to their professional identity formation. Methods Transcripts of 15 semi-structured interviews with general practice supervisors were analysed using Wenger’s ‘community of practice’ theoretical framework as an analytic lens. Results Developing a..