Professional Confidence and Expertise in Allied Health
A Narrative Study of Critical Incidents
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 19463704 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Bianca N Jackson (0000-0001-5566-8276, University of Auckland, corresponding author), Suzanne C Purdy (0000-0001-9978-8173, University of Auckland), Helena D Cooper–Thomas (0000-0003-4080-9704, Auckland University of Technology), Helena D Cooper-Thomas (Auckland University of Technology) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Pages | 10497323261448819-10497323261448819 |
| Publication date | 2026-05-28 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Qualitative Health Research (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1049-7323 • E-ISSN: 1552-7557 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/10497323261448819 |
| PMID | 42207696 |
| OpenAlex | W7162657803 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 30 |
Highly experienced allied health professionals possess extensive knowledge and skill developed through sustained professional practice and have the potential to support the development of others. However, their willingness, capacity, or opportunity to enact an identity as an expert varies. This study explored how highly experienced allied health professionals in Aotearoa New Zealand construct and negotiate expert identity through narratives of critical workplace incidents. Focusing on therapy professionals across disciplines, the study examined how expertise is narrated, recognised, and sustained within professional communities rather than treating expertise as a fixed individual attribute. Using an interpretive, critical pragmatic methodology, critical incident narratives were collected from 45 highly experienced practitioners, most of whom were women and did not identify as Māori or Pacific peoples. Affirming, challenging, and transformative incidents provided insight into how participants made meaning of their professional experiences and positioned themselves as experts in relation to colleagues, organisations, and professional norms. Analysis showed that professional confidence was central to the construction and expression of expert identity. Confidence functioned both as an outcome of experience and as a narrative resource that enabled practitioners to act, share knowledge, and navigate uncertainty and vulnerability. Affirming incidents often reinforced expert identity through role clarity, professional recognition, and value alignment, while challenging incidents prompted reflection, narrative reframing, and changes in practice. The findings highlight expertise as a relational and socially supported identity, constructed through storytelling, professional interaction, and collective recognition, offering a nuanced understanding of how expert identity is sustained in allied health practice
Aotearoa · Construct (python library) · Identity (music) · Meaning (existential) · Narrative · Narrative inquiry · Negotiation · Qualitative research · Transformative learning · Value (mathematics) · Counseling, Therapy, and Family Dynamics · Management and Organizational Studies · Occupational Therapy Practice and Research
Understanding Narrative Inquiry
Deliberate Practice and Acquisition of Expert Performance
Practicing Dialogical Narrative Analysis
How Stories Make Sense of Personal Experiences
To give or to receive? Factors influencing members’ knowledge sharing and community promotion in professional virtual communities
In Defense of Being “Native”
Self-efficacy, job satisfaction, motivation and commitment
Reflecting on reflexive thematic analysis
The effects of being categorised
Journal article reporting standards for qualitative primary, qualitative meta-analytic, and mixed methods research in psychology
Stressful Encounters with Social Work Clients
Narrative as self-portrait
Being" Native versus "Going Native
Power Relations Between the Researcher and the Researched
| Highly cited | No |
|---|