Objective  To explore the status of professional identity in medical students under current background of doctor-patient relationship for relevant education strategy-making.

  Methods  We conducted a questionnaire survey on the status and impacts of professional identity among 232 clinic medicine students recruited with stratified random sampling in a medical university in Heilongjiang province during April 2017.

  Results  For all the students, the average overall score of professional identity was 3.53 ± 0.56 and the average domain scores of professional identity were 3.72 ± 0.77 for emotion, 3.57 ± 0.76 for behavior, 3.48 ± 0.81 for commitment, 3.62 ± 0.79 for expectation, and 3.84 ± 0.50 for value, respectively; all the average scores were significantly higher than the medians (all P < 0.05). There were significant difference in the overall and all domain scores of professional identity among the students with different years of study (P < 0.05); the overall and all domain scores of professional identity were significantly higher among the only-child students than among the non-only-child students (P < 0.05 for all).

  Conclusion  The professional identity of meidcal students is at a relatively high level, but education programs for the promotion of professional identity still need to be implemented among the students.