Abstract: Objective To preliminarily analyze the situation of identity issues of Chinese medical students and to explore the potential solution. Methods Choose medical students from China and abroad as study subjects and use self-designed questionnaire to investigate the adverse events that medical students go through during clerkship and the attitudes of medical students towards identity issues. Results The total amount of valid questionnaires is 402 from China and 74 from abroad. The demographic characteristics show no significant difference between these two groups. Fewer medical students from abroad have been through the distrust from patients and refusal to perform medical procedures due to their student identity. Students from abroad are more inclined to clarify their student identity compared to Chinese students (77% vs 30.9%). The proportion of students who acknowledge patients’ right to know is significantly higher than that of China (97.2% vs 88.8%). Conclusion Medical students in China are facing a more challenging identity issue compared to students from abroad. They go through adverse events more frequently. This circumstance needs to be solved by institutional building.

Key words: medical students, identity issue, clinical clerkship, institutional building