Actionable companion · Staff wellbeing and retention

From leadership research to district action: Latent Profiles of Professional Identity Formation, Professionalism, Leadership, Resilience, and Well-being among Medical Students

AI-assisted editorial implementation guide. Proposed district actions are separate from the original authors’ findings and recommendations. Independent peer review of this guide is not asserted.

Evidence and transfer

Education-related source: verify which participants, institutions and outcomes were actually studied before district adoption. Source publication type: research-article. License and identity checks do not establish study quality or causality.

Original authors’ abstract, reproduced under the source license:

Abstract Introduction Professional Identity Formation (PIF) is central to medical education, reflecting how students internalize the values, behaviours, and roles of the profession. While interest in PIF is increasing, limited work has explored how professional identity, professionalism, leadership, resilience, and well-being co-occur within subgroups. Most studies use variable-centred approaches, overlooking subgroup differences. This study aimed to use Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) to identify distinct sub-groups of medical students based on these constructs, exploring implications for future targeted educational support. Methods A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 679 national and international medical students at the RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ireland, using 76 items drawn from four validated scales measuring PIF, Professionalism, Leadership, Resilience, and Well-being. LPA was applied to uncover unobserved subgroups, and multinomial logistic regression estimated the associations between covariates and profile membership. Results LPA identified a three-profile solution as optimal: Conscientious Followers (n = 322, 47%), Development Group (n = 196, 29%), and Resilient Leaders (n = 161, 24%) based on distinct patterns of scores across different constructs. Conscientious Followers was characterized by higher scores on perceptions of professional identity, psychological well-being, and professionalism, but lower scores on resilience and leadership. The Development Group demonstrated the lowest scores across leadership, professionalism, perceptions of professional identity, and psychological well-being, while showing moderate levels of resilience. Resilient Leaders displayed higher resilience and leadership scores, moderate perceptions of professional identity and professionalism, and lower psychological well-being. Multinomial logistic regression results showed that students’ region of origin and year of study were associated with group membership. Conclusion Medical students demonstrate distinct latent profiles across professional identity formation, professionalism, leadership, resilience, and well-being. These findings highlight the need for tailored educational support that addresses the distinct developmental needs of each subgroup, alongside developmentally appropriate interventions to foster students’ evolving professional identities and overall well-being throughout medical training. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1007/s40670-026-02820-6. Keywords: Latent profile analysis, Professional identity formation, Professionalism, Leadership, Resilience and well-being

A 90-day district inquiry

1. Days 1–15 · Appraise. Read the source methods, recruitment, comparator, outcomes and limitations. Record how the study setting differs from your district and which claim the design can support.
2. Days 16–30 · Design. Map one recurring source of staff workload with voluntary staff input. Agree one reversible schedule, support or task-allocation change and name its owner. Agree participation, privacy protections, baseline and stopping rules before starting.
3. Days 31–60 · Observe. Collect the pre-agreed measures, keep a log of implementation changes and invite confidential voluntary feedback. Preserve existing support for staff and learners.
4. Days 61–90 · Decide. Compare workload hours, a consistent voluntary wellbeing measure, absence and retention intentions with the pre-pilot baseline. Report response rates and avoid causal claims from an uncontrolled comparison. Make a dated decision to stop, revise or extend the inquiry.

Board decision brief

Present the local problem, source setting, evidence limits, intervention, responsible owner, total cost, measured changes and uncertainty. Separate staff perceptions, implementation measures and student learning outcomes.

Attribution and reuse

Dick Nsimbe; Anne Hickey; Denis W Harkin; Abdelsalam Bensaaud; Áine Ryan; Frank Doyle. Latent Profiles of Professional Identity Formation, Professionalism, Leadership, Resilience, and Well-being among Medical Students. Medical Science Educator (2026-07-16). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40670-026-02820-6

Prepared 2026-11-07. Source authorship and DOI are preserved. The abstract and source passages are attributed extracts; this editorial guide is offered under the same CC BY 4.0 license.