Recent calls to focus on identity formation in medicine propose that educators establish as a goal of medical education the support and guidance of students and residents as they develop their professional identity. Those entering medical school arrive with a personal identity formed since birth. As they proceed through the educational continuum, they successively develop the identity of a medical student, a resident, and a physician. Each individual's journey from layperson to skilled professional is unique and is affected by "who they are" at the beginning and "who they wish to become."Identity formation is a dynamic process achieved through socialization; it results in individuals joining the medical community of practice. Multiple factors within and outside of the educational system affect the formation of an individual's professional identity. Each learner reacts to different factors in her or his own fashion, with the anticipated outcome being the emergence of a professional identity. However, the inherent logic in the related processes of professional identity formation and socialization may be obscured by their complexity and the large number of factors involved.Drawing on the identity formation and socialization literature, as well as experience gained in teaching professionalism, the authors developed schematic representations of these processes. They adapted them to the medical context to guide educators as they initiate educational interventions, which aim to explicitly support professional identity formation and the ultimate goal of medical education-to ensure that medical students and residents come to "think, act, and feel like a physician."

Teaching medical professionalism is a fundamental component of medical education. The objective is to ensure that students understand the nature of professionalism and its obligations and internalize the value system of the medical profession. The recent emergence of interest in the medical literature on professional identity formation gives reason to reexamine this objective. The unstated aim of teaching professionalism has been to ensure the development of practitioners who possess a professional identity. The teaching of medical professionalism therefore represents a means to an end.The principles of identity formation that have been articulated in educational psychology and other fields have recently been used to examine the process through which physicians acquire their professional identities. Socialization-with its complex networks of social interaction, role models and mentors, experiential learning, and explicit and tacit knowledge acquisition-influences each learner, causing them to gradually "think, act, and feel like a physician."The authors propose that a principal goal of medical education be the development of a professional identity and that educational strategies be developed to support this new objective. The explicit teaching of professionalism and emphasis on professional behaviors will remain important. However, expanding knowledge of identity formation in medicine and of socialization in the medical environment should lend greater logic and clarity to the educational activities devoted to ensuring that the medical practitioners of the future will possess and demonstrate the qualities of the "good physician."

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Faculty development includes those activities that are designed to renew or assist faculty in their different roles. As such, it encompasses a wide variety of interventions to help individual faculty members improve their skills. However, it can also be used as a tool to engage faculty in the process of institutional change. The Faculty of Medicine at McGill University determined that such a change was necessary to effectively teach and evaluate professionalism at the undergraduate level, and a faculty development program on professionalism helped to bring about the desired curricular change. The authors describe that program to illustrate how faculty development can serve as a useful instrument in the process of change. The ongoing program, established in 1997, consists of medical education rounds and "think tanks" to promote faculty consensus and buy-in, and diverse faculty-wide and departmental workshops to convey core content, examine teaching and evaluation strategies, and promote reflection and self-awareness. To analyze the approach used and the results achieved, the authors applied a well-known model by J.P. Kotter for implementing change that consists of the following phases: establishing a sense of urgency, forming a powerful guiding coalition, creating a vision, communicating the vision, empowering others to act on the vision, generating short-term wins, consolidating gains and producing more change, and anchoring new approaches in the culture. The authors hope that their school's experience will be useful to others who seek institutional change via faculty development.

We describe an undergraduate programme, entitled 'Physicianship', based on the fundamental premise that healing is the doctor's primary obligation. Explicit training in a specific clinical method, whose cardinal features include observation, attentive listening and clinical reasoning, emphasises the knowledge and skills necessary to effect this theoretical framework. The understanding of illnesses emphasises loss of homeostasis, whereas the physical examination highlights impairments of function. The educational experience is enriched with numerous opportunities for self-reflection.

The core features, and the modules based upon them, can serve for further empirical work on clinical reasoning and lead to modules for advanced students as they progress in their acquisition of expertize.

Purpose A fundamental goal of medical education is supporting learners in forming a professional identity. While it is known that learners perceive clinical teachers to be critically important in this process, the latter’s perspective is unknown. This study sought to understand how clinical teachers perceive their influence on the professional identity formation of learners. Method In 2017, a research assistant conducted 16 semistructured interviews of clinical teachers from 8 specialties at McGill University. The research assistant audiorecorded and subsequently transcribed interviews for analysis. Following principles of qualitative description, the research team developed a coding scheme using both inductive codes (from the words of the participants) and deductive codes (based on the literature and the theory of communities of practice). Through a cross-case analysis, the team then identified salient themes. Results Participants struggled to describe their influence on learners’ professional identity without first being prompted to focus on their own identity and its formation. Once prompted, clinical teachers reported viewing their personal and professional identities as integrated and believed that caring for patients was integral to forming their professional identity. They identified explicit role modeling, engaging in difficult conversations, and providing graded autonomy as ways in which they could influence the identity development of learners. However, they had difficulty discerning the magnitude of their influence. Conclusions This study was the first to explore professional identity formation from the perspective of clinical teachers. The 2010 Carnegie Foundation report called for an increased focus on professional identity formation. Giving clinical teachers the space and guidance to reflect on this process, helping them make the implicit explicit, and supporting them in using their own experiences as learners to inform their teaching appear to be critical steps in achieving this goal.

Participating in the Osler Fellowship, an example of situated and work-based learning, resulted in a sense of connection with students, medical education, core professional values, and colleagues. As medical educators continue to develop longitudinal mentoring programs, the authors hope that these findings will offer insights on faculty development, recruitment, and renewal.