Professional identity formation: creating a longitudinal framework through TIME (Transformation in Medical Education).

The University of Texas System established the Transformation in Medical Education (TIME) initiative to reconfigure and shorten medical education from college matriculation through medical school graduation. One of the key changes proposed as part of the TIME initiative was to begin emphasizing professional identity formation (PIF) at the premedical level. The TIME Steering Committee appointed an interdisciplinary task force to explore the fundamentals of PIF and to formulate strategies that would help students develop their professional identity as they transform into physicians.

Enhancing competency in professionalism: targeting resident advance directive education.

Background: Education about advance directives typically is incorporated into medical school curricula and is not commonly offered in residency. Residents' experiences with advance directives are generally random, nonstandardized, and difficult to assess. In 2008, an advance directive curriculum was developed by the Scott & White/Texas A&M University System Health Science Center College of Medicine (S&W/Texas A&M) internal medicine residency program and the hospital's legal department.

Perceptions of long-term care, autonomy, and dignity, by residents, family and care-givers: the Houston experience.

Houston, Texas, is a major U.S. city with, like many, a growing aging population.