Becoming and Being a Physician

Structured around personal stories, this book provides a rigorous review of current thinking and research on the physician life cycle. It 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.

?Don?t read this book unless you are poised for transformation. While providing a comprehensive review of decades of academic research and scholarship on adult learning, Becoming and Being a Physician gifts its reader with moments of instantaneous clarity.? - Rita Charon MD PhD

?This book is an important step in providing a philosophical and moral framework for developing those to whom all of us will entrust our lives.? - Ron Epstein MD

"Years ago, the book, Changing and Learning in the Lives of Physicians (Fox, Mazmanian & Putnam; Prager Press, 1989) offered a career path, and opened the door to profound reflection and redirection. It literally changed my life. Nearly four decades later, Becoming and Being a Physician offers the same gift - a masterful, inspiring and richly-referenced book, crafted from the personal journeys of three physician educators. Both emotionally moving and scientifically-based, this is a must-read for anyone interested in lifelong learning and professional development. It might change their lives, too." - Dave Davis MD