What does "I am a doctor" mean currently? Structured around personal stories, this book provides a rigorous review of current thinking and research on the physician's life cycle. The book considers the trajectories and factors that influence a doctor’s development over decades of a medical career.

Taking an integrated approach, the authors consider the formal stages of a physician’s training including medical school, residency training and practice and review discourses around professionalism, competency-based education, lifelong learning, expertise development, reflection, and narrative that merge into the construct of medical professional identity formation.

Reflecting the dramatic changes that have occurred in the physician’s role, job description, and reality of modern clinical practice, further compounded by the pandemic, this new book will support and encourage medical educators to ensure that the enduring values of the medical profession prevail.