2.21.2025
Why are young adults going into medicine?
As the United States emerges from COVID-19 with a depleted health care workforce paired with a climate of uncertainty and rapid change, there is an ever-important question: how can we encourage young people to go into medicine?
After discussions with a dozen pre-med and current medical students, I believe the answer is two-fold: personal experiences fueling passion and professional experiences opening the door for dreams to become reality.
Some young adults pursuing a career in medicine have had personal experiences which proved to be the catalyst for their interest in medicine, ranging from caring for family members or friends, a personal injury, or meeting a health care professional they admire.
Brenna Russell
For others, there were no watershed moments until they had feet on the floor and did the work. Brenna Russell, currently a medical scribe in the process of applying to medical school, says that she is not a decisive person. “Growing up, I never felt a calling from an outside force to pursue a specific area of study. I enjoyed science, but I didn’t like the idea of deciding my future before I got to experience it for myself. So, I walked on the naturally occurring path, letting life unfold for itself. While I kept the possibility of becoming a physician open, I didn’t let it define my identity.
However, that all changed when she got paired up with a long-term Alzheimer’s buddy: “I was with her for about a year and a half. Two weeks before my buddy died, I sat with her while she was taking a nap. Her health was declining and I could tell there wasn’t much of her brain left. Yet there she was–a living body, sleeping peacefully. I had a moment of realization: “Wow, I want to protect this human existence.” Our friendship was powerful in showing me the beauty that existed in the person beneath the disease. Before, I was walking on a loose path, but this felt like an uncontrollable push toward pursuing medicine–a future with a clear goal”.
Young adults are paralyzed with choice. What or who do you want to become? Many young adults walk on the path of least resistance, or the one which occurs naturally, aching for the feeling of “this is what I was meant to do” or “I feel an outside force pushing me into this profession.” However, medicine is neither the path of least resistance nor the path which occurs naturally for many young adults, highlighting the need for creating spaces for personal and professional lightbulb moments.
What makes a pivotal moment like the one Brenna experienced? First, there is a responsibility for young adults to seek out opportunities. If you feel aimless but you spend the majority of your time inside or on video games, start searching for opportunities. We need you off your couch and into the clinic or hospital, especially now with the largest aging generation–Baby Boomers– needing more assistance.
Frank Sheffield
Secondly, there must be an increased number and awareness of opportunities for teenagers and young adults to be exposed to medicine. Frank Sheffield stressed the importance of a high school medical program at Georgetown University in translating personal passion into professional purpose:
“One of my friends in high school introduced me to programs at Georgetown and on a whim, I picked the medicine one. I was like, “If I don’t like it, I don’t like it.” I go to this three week intensive course studying health care in Nigeria, looking at the most common diseases in Nigeria and it opened my mind to the world around me and global health.
At the end of the program, the final test was to diagnose a patient. I thought it was going to be a mock patient, somebody like my parents, but it actually was, by using a virtual reality technology, they put me in this headset with a lab coat on and video call with a doctor in Nigeria. He is also wearing a headset and you are seeing exactly what he sees. I am presented with a little child and her mom, and I had to look at the child, assess the child, ask the parent questions, and then diagnose the child.
Long story short, I diagnose the patient 100% correctly. The doctor is like, “Great job! You did everything correctly. You’re compassionate. You noticed the little things.”
At the time, I was excited. I was happy. I remember smiling and I come home to my parents and I am telling them about this experience, and I won’t shut up about it. And after they’ve heard the story three times, they’re like “Oh my goodness. We get it. This happened.” But I kept telling them about it. The next day, they were like, “I have never heard you talk about something like this other than basketball.” I was at home reading through the literature again and thinking back on the experience and how I did it.
Medicine was the path. Medicine tied the professional and personal experiences together and I’ve been settled on medicine ever since. The next year applying to college, I applied basically with a personal statement all about medicine, and I connected it to basketball.
It was that true excitement that came after where you’re just excited talking about it, just smiling ear-to-ear about it. I won’t shut up, and you don’t even realize. Ever since then, I have been steady on the path. It has been a tough path, but I’ve been steady on it.”
Where to next?
The best magnet to attract young people to medicine is to create experiences which balance responsibility, increasing capability, and impact. Much of our education we do not see the application value in what we are learning. We want to be as excited about school as we are about our hobbies such as sports, video games, or music. We ache for work that is meaningful. If we have an end goal which is powered by lightbulb moments along the way, we will continue to pursue a career in medicine and do the hard work. We will not go into medicine because our parents want us to or society expects or needs it of us; we all think someone else will do it.
Young adults: search for opportunities. Career medical professionals: create the opportunities and increase the exposure of those opportunities for us to have those lightbulb moments. Our ability to connect will determine the future of American health care.
Your friend,
Ian Scott
