Professional identity in interprofessional teams: findings from a scoping review

Integrated care has been identified as being fundamental to health and social care reforms. How this interprofessional working impacts on professional identity is unclear. There is a lack of reviews synthesising this growing body of literature. It is therefore timely to conduct a scoping study of the literature which explores the intersection between interprofessional care and professional identity. The aim of this study is to identify the factors that impact on professional identity when working in interprofessional teams. A scoping review was conducted; Business Source Complete (EBSCO); CINAHL; Proquest; Medline; Scopus; and Cochrane Reviews (January 1980 to July 2018) were systematically searched for studies focusing on professional identity and interprofessional teams. Inclusion and exclusion criteria were identified and applied, data were charted, and a synthesis of the narrative was conducted. Sixteen papers are identified as central to this scoping review. Analysis of the papers highlights three key areas of interest: the creation of professional identity; challenges and barriers to professional identity; and implications for leadership and management. The significance of this review is considered along with an agenda for future research. Expanding the research to include more empirical studies to consider areas such as the value of interprofessional education programmes and to include the voice of those professionals no longer working or choosing not to work in an interprofessional care setting should also feature within future research.