In modern society, doctors are a representative example of professionals-that is, doctors are members of an occupation with high barriers to entry. For doctors, long-term education, training, and licensing are factors that make it difficult to enter medical practice. These external characteristics, which have mainly arisen in the modern era, play an important part in the professional identity of doctors. Nonetheless, the core of the doctor's identity is the identity of the healer. In today's Korean society, the universal identity of doctors as healers results from a combination of the special historical identity of professionals with high entry barriers. Korean society currently demands a high level of ethical awareness from doctors. These demands are partly derived from the nature of the practice of medical care, but they also reflect demands for strong social responsibility as professionals. It is difficult to cultivate professional ethics simply by imposing legitimate virtues, presenting an ideal model, or emphasizing moral education that is not fully realistic. A deep-rooted sense of professional ethics stems from a clear awareness of professional identity. Education plays an important role in the formation and awareness of doctors' professional identity, and various types of content and methods can be used in education. However, since the identity of an entity is formed through the process of historical experience, it is thought that the historical process of the formation of doctors as a profession should be included as an important part of education.

Professional identity formation (PIF) is an essential concept in professional education. Many scholars have explored conceptual frameworks of PIF and conducted empirical studies to advance an understanding of the construct in medical education. Despite its importance, it is unclear what educational approaches and assessment practices are actually implemented in medical education settings. Therefore, we conducted a literature review of empirical studies reporting educational practices for medical learners' PIF. We searched the Web of Science database using keywords and chose 37 papers for analysis based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. Thematic analysis was conducted. Most empirical papers (92%) were from North America and Western Europe and used qualitative research methods, including mixed methods (99%). The papers reported the use of reflection activities and elective courses for specific purposes, such as art as an educational activity. Patient and healthcare experiences were also found to be a central theme in medical learners' PIF. Through an iterative analysis of the key themes that emerged from the PIF studies, we derived the following key concepts and implications: (1) the importance of creating informal and incidental learning environments, (2) ordinary yet authentic patient experiences, (3) a climate of psychosocial safety in a learning environment embracing individual learners' background and emotional development, and (4) the reconceptualization of PIF education and assessment. In conclusion, research on PIF should be diversified to include various cultural and social contexts. Theoretical frameworks should also be diversified and developed beyond Kegan's developmental framework to accommodate the nonlinear and dynamic nature of PIF.

This study examined the current status of the medical professionalism curriculum in Korea to suggest a plan to move towards the formation of a professional identity. Professionalism education data from 28 Korean medical schools were analyzed, including the number of courses, required or elective status, corresponding credits, major course contents, and teaching and evaluation methods. Considerable variation was found in the number of courses and credits in the professionalism curriculum between medical schools. The course contents were structured to expand learners' experiences, including the essence and knowledge of professionalism, understanding of oneself, social interaction with others, and the role of doctors in society and the healthcare system. The most common teaching methods were lectures and discussions, while reflective writing, coaching, feedback, and role models were used by fewer than 50% of medical schools. Written tests, assignments and reports, discussions, and presentations were frequently used as evaluation methods, but portfolio and self-evaluation rates were relatively low. White coat ceremonies were conducted in 96.2% of medical schools, and 22.2% had no code of conduct. Based on the above results, the author suggests that professional identity formation should be explicitly included in learning outcomes and educational contents, and that professional identity formation courses need to be added to each year of the program. The author also proposes the need to expand teaching methods such as reflective writing, feedback, dilemma discussion, and positive role models, to incorporate various evaluation methods such as portfolios, self-assessment, and moral reasoning, and to strengthen faculty development.

Building professional identity is the most basic purpose of medical education. Students who enter medical schools do not have an identity rooted in the medical profession, and universities should therefore take steps to help students form their identity as doctors, attitudes, beliefs, and values through the curriculum. However, while medical knowledge and clinical skills are fully reflected in basic medical education, issues persist regarding education on values, attitudes, and beliefs that are important for professional identity. Regarding the process of professional identity formation, it is important to keep in mind that rapid changes in modern society lead to corresponding changes in socio-cultural expectations and demands related to professional identity, resulting in discrepancies between the reality of medical education and the actual field of medicine. Medical schools need to prepare students for these discrepancies, and in-depth discussions should address what is important and what should be solved first at medical education sites. However, it is difficult to generalize the tasks of professional identity formation in the field of medical education because each medical school may have unique circumstances. This article discusses the tasks that medical education should solve for professional identity formation education in terms of five aspects: establishing learning outcomes, training educational experts, introducing transformative learning, utilizing self-directed learning, and developing evaluation methods.

This study investigated medical students' perceptions of good jobs. We classified medical students' perceptions of good jobs and analyzed the characteristics of each type. The Q methodology was used to extract medical students' subjective thoughts. After extracting statements based on previous studies, 46 Q samples were selected. The P sample consisted of 40 medical students divided evenly by gender and grade. They performed a Q sort of the 46 Q sample questionnaire and the results were analyzed using the QUANL ver. 1.2 program. Very few consensus statements were found in the replies. We divided answers into four types, each of which was clearly distinguished: (1) quality of life-oriented jobs, (2) reward-oriented jobs, (3) service-oriented jobs, and (4) self-realization-oriented jobs. Medical students in type 1 prioritized quality of life equally at work and at home. Medical students in type 2 preferred high-paying jobs. Medical students in type 3 placed importance on serving others. Finally, medical students in type 4 viewed good jobs as involving learning and development. The types of jobs sought were classified according to individual students' values and subjectivity. Medical schools may use the results of this study as a basis for career guidance.

Due to the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, the new norm of online learning has been recognized as core to medical institutions for academic continuity, and students are expected to be motivated and engaged in learning while maintaining distance from other peers and educators. To facilitate students' and educators' newly defined roles in online medical education settings, it is crucial to understand how students are actively motivated and engaged in learning. Hence, this study explored medical students' motivational regulation profiles and examined the effects of motivational regulation strategies (MRS) on cognitive learning and learning engagement for online learning. Data were collected after the end of the first semester in 2020 from a sample of 334 medical students enrolled at a public university school of medicine. Latent profile analysis indicated three subgroups with different motivational regulation profiles: the low-profile, medium-profile, and high-profile groups. Regarding different MRS patterns in the high-profile group, mastery self-talk, performance approach self-talk, and the self-consequating strategy appeared to be most applicable for regulating learners' motivation. Analysis of variance showed that the profile groups with higher levels of MRS use were connected to a higher willingness to use cognitive learning strategies and a higher degree of engagement in online learning. The findings of this study emphasize the use of specific sets of MRS to support learning motivation and the need to design effective self-regulated learning environments in online medical education settings.

This study examined the relationships among personality traits, coping efficacy, and academic stress in medical and non-medical students in South Korea, and investigated the mediating effect of coping efficacy in the relationship between personality traits and academic stress. The study group comprised 210 medical students and 175 non-medical students. They were asked to rate their personality traits, coping efficacy, and academic stress. The data were analyzed using IBM SPSS ver. 26.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA) and AMOS ver. 26.0 (IBM Corp.). Medical students scored higher for examination stress and lower for extroversion than non-medical students. In both groups, extroversion and conscientiousness positively affected coping efficacy, while neuroticism influenced it negatively. Neuroticism directly influenced all types of academic stress in both groups, while extroversion and conscientiousness only had direct effects on examination stress among medical students. Coping efficacy mediated the associations between personality traits and academic stress, except for the relationship between neuroticism and grade stress among medical students. The study indicates that coping efficacy had a significant effect on relieving academic stress among students with higher scores for extroversion and conscientiousness. Efforts should be made to decrease neuroticism to lower academic stress, as the relationship between neuroticism and academic stress is not directly influenced by coping efficacy. The implications of these results are discussed regarding a consultation system for students, especially those in medical school.