The study aimed to understand medical students' experiences of emotional changes, including their method of adapting to experiences, and the effect of the experiences in shaping their identities. We interviewed 12 medical students who were finishing their 1-year clinical internship in 2016. Data on their opinions and reasons for emotional changes during their school life were obtained. The descriptive phenomenological approach was applied to analyze the interviews. Their stress came from disappointment in themselves, competitive environment, observing a change in their personalities, meeting their parents' expectations, and interpersonal relations. The interviewees adjusted to the medical study by exercising self-control in their studies and daily lives, by practicing self-acceptance and observing their state of mind, and by breaking free from the competition-driven environment and obsession with grades. In addition, they cultivated endurance and found external support. Finally, they achieved self-efficacy and were comfortable in their identity as medical students. They still had to address the stress from working relationships and the difficulty in balancing studies and life. The medical students' self-evaluation and compulsive tendencies increased during the medical course due to the burden of studies. They evolved by learning self-control and introspection and seeking ways to adapt. Understanding this growth process of medical students will improve student support in medical schools.

The aim of this study was to use narrative inquiry to explore the experiences of medical students who faced expulsion, military service, and readmission, and their journeys of identity formation. Three medical students were recruited via snowball sampling, and each participant was interviewed twice. According to the sequence of experiences, their stories were summarized as follows: the process of being expelled, the military service experience and readmission process, and the present. Before all three students were expelled, they lived dissolute lives free of concern from the entrance examination and failed to cope well with dropping out. They felt that military experience had helped them develop interpersonal skills in the clinical setting and the strength to withstand a difficult crisis. Two students were motivated to become doctors after military service, but the other was not. They had reflected deeply over their unique experiences. The scars imprinted from their experiences became a means of stimulation, and they ultimately acquired the resilience and ability to accommodate for and counteract their weaknesses. This appears to have been an important influence on their identity formation. The narrations of their rare experiences can help medical educators more fully understand and support medical students through difficulties, specifically with regard to academic failure or expulsion. These findings may prompt medical professors to think about the kind of guidance or motivation that could help students before expulsion, rather than assuming that they are simply lacking academic ability.