As a future health professional, you will begin comparing yourself to reference groups of people who occupy the social role to which you aspire. This aspiration will influence your attitude, values, and behavior so reference groups are an integral part of your preparation for your profession. Reference groups are one way that you can benchmark yourself with others already in the profession to determine if you have the personal and professional characteristics to achieve your goal. This is a means of self-evaluation and gaining an accurate understanding of your “self.” Your instructors serve as a reference group as many of them have health professional experience. When you begin your clinical, the clinicians you are observing and working with will be part of your reference group. By observing a nurse patting the hand of a patient and providing a smile and words of encouragement to a patient, you are able to question whether you have the compassion that is necessary within the nursing occupation. As you interact within your reference groups, you may want to look for characteristics among the members that demonstrate:

• empathy
• patience
• optimism
• communication and interpersonal skills
• emotional stability
• flexibility
• attention to detail
• problem solving skills
• physical endurance

By observing your reference groups for these characteristics you can begin measuring whether these are among your innate characteristics or if you need to actively begin working on the ones that don’t come naturally. As an example, you might choose to look for individuals who demonstrate optimism and determine how it reflects on patient care.