Hospital Pharmacist
2006;13:411-412
December 2006

What will it mean for technicians to be part of a profession?

By Helen Middleton, MRPharmS

Professional socialisation, the subject of this article, is a topic of current interest to pharmacy technicians as they prepare for statutory registration and the changes to their professional status that this and other developments may bring

Focus on technicians series

This article as FULL TEXT PDF (100K)

SUMMARY

Professional socialisation is the process by which a person acquires the values, attitudes, behaviours, language and jargon of an occupation or profession. It is a multi-staged, multi- phased and fragmented process which does not stop on completion of formal training. Socialisation can be divided into three phases:

• Anticipatory
• Formal training
• Post qualification

In the anticipatory phase, individuals get a sense of the profession from previous experiences. Gender, social class and schooling all contribute to the type of occupation an individual enters. Anticipatory socialisation also includes images built up from observation.

The formal training phase includes the formal studies required to qualify for a professional role. The curriculum is often referred to as a unique body of professional knowledge and this is one way of claiming professional status. The curriculum, teaching methods, level of classroom activity, practice activities and exposure to the workplace all contribute to socialisation.

Training courses, postgraduate qualifications and informal learning contribute to the post-qualification phase.