Health occupations in Israel: Comparative patterns of change during socialization

This paper explores some of the micro-processes of socialization for four health occupations (medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, and nursing) by means of a longitudinal, cross-occupational design. It presents additional findings of the Israel Study of Socialization for the Health Professions and describes changes during socialization in the image of the normative occupational role, which is structured in terms of People, Status, and Science components. Three types of change are examined through correlations between times and mean scores: primacy, continuity, and absolute emphasis on the role components. These changes are shown to be related to certain characteristics of the four occupations: their status, the timing and the length of clinical training, the clarity of the occupational role, and the extent of differentiation of periods during socialization. Parallel data were collected in all groups before the starts of socialization and at several points during the process, the final time being close to students' entry into practice.