Medical school

What led me from nurse practitioner to medical school

Education

June 12, 2025

For years, I cared for patients as a nurse practitioner—managing chronic disease, guiding them through acute illness, counseling them through the often messy realities of life and health. I loved my work. I loved the relationships I built with patients, the trust they placed in me, and the opportunity to make a difference in their lives.

But over time, a quiet restlessness began to grow—a sense that I wanted to deepen …

Professional identity: a new narrative for medical education [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

June 10, 2025

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Otolaryngologist Kevin C. McMains discusses his article “The hero’s journey: Understanding professional identity formation in graduate medical education.” Kevin discusses the ongoing crisis of burnout and mental health issues in medical training, …

How school meals can transform health [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

June 9, 2025

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Osteopathic medical student Scarlett Saitta discusses her article “The school cafeteria could save American medicine.” Scarlett discusses the profound connection between childhood nutrition and long-term health outcomes, drawing from her personal experiences …

Why tracking cognitive load could save doctors and patients

Hiba Fatima Hamid

Education

June 6, 2025

Medicine demands precision. However, we overlook one of its most critical variables: physician cognitive load. As a medical student, I see both sides: how deeply patients trust their doctors, and how invisible that mental toll often is. Each day, doctors are pressured to make high-stakes decisions while managing patient care and mental strain. As a field, we track vital signs but fail to measure cognitive fatigue.

Burnout is peaking at crisis …

The hidden cost of becoming a doctor: a South Asian perspective

Momeina Aslam

Education

June 3, 2025

Everyone talks about the pride of earning that “Dr.” title. But few speak about the ugly journey of medical school: the isolation, exhaustion, and invisible battles.

There’s never a shortage of people telling you to work hard. What they don’t tell you is that sometimes, hard work still won’t be enough. In Pakistan, over 180,000 students sit for the MDCAT each year, competing for limited seats. Globally, 70,000 take the MCAT. …

From burnout to balance: a lesson in self-care for future doctors

Seetha Aribindi

Education

June 1, 2025

Last fall, more than 20,000 first-year medical students donned white coats, pushing total U.S. medical school enrollment to nearly 100,000. Yet despite this surge of new trainees, the American Association of Medical Colleges projects a shortage of up to 86,000 doctors by 2036.

The strain is already evident. Each year, tens of thousands of American physicians pack up their stethoscopes and scalpels …

Why young doctors in South Korea feel broken before they even begin

Anonymous

Education

May 31, 2025

I am a first-year medical student in South Korea. I wrote this essay to share what it feels like to enter a system that demands so much and still receives so little understanding in return. I haven’t even worn a white coat yet, but I already feel the weight of it.

In South Korea, becoming a doctor requires six years of undergraduate medical education, followed by exhausting years of internship and …

Addressing the physician shortage: How AI can help, not replace

Amelia Mercado

Tech

May 27, 2025

The physician shortage in the United States is a real and urgent issue. Projections from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) estimate that by 2034, the nation could face a deficit between 37,800 and 124,000 physicians. Primary care will be particularly affected, with a potential shortfall of up to 48,000 doctors. Rural and underserved communities will likely bear the brunt of the burden.

This shortage stems from multiple …

Why true listening is crucial for future health care professionals [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

May 23, 2025

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Certified coach Kathleen Muldoon discusses her article, “The cost of presence: a lesson in listening.” She recounts a poignant experience observing a health care student disengaged during a powerful presentation by a …

Do Jewish students face rising bias in holistic admissions?

Anonymous

Education

May 21, 2025

In the grand theater of American higher education, where the pursuit of knowledge once bowed to the austere discipline of merit, a troubling drama unfolds. The medical school admissions process, now awash in the murky waters of holistic review, risks becoming a stage for ideological caprice rather than a crucible of intellectual rigor. Amid the clamor of the Gaza conflict—a geopolitical tempest that has spilled onto university quads and inflamed …

Rethinking medical education for a technology-driven era in health care [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

Podcast

May 20, 2025

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Medical student Rishma Jivan discusses her article, “Medical curriculum 2.0: Integrating technology and innovation in medical education.” She argues for an urgent update to medical training, embedding technology and innovation as core …

Does silence as a faculty retention strategy in academic medicine and health sciences work?

Sylk Sotto, EdD, MPS, MBA

Conditions

May 17, 2025

Faculty retention remains an ongoing concern for colleges and universities, especially at a time when there is a clear misalignment between the socio-political environment, the mission of higher education, and the values held by most faculty. If you’ve been paying attention, you know: higher education is experiencing waves of faculty disengagement.

However, some institutions respond to crises not with dialogue, but with silence. They avoid confronting faculty concerns …

How dismantling DEI endangers the future of medical care

Shashank Madhu and Christian Tallo

Education

May 17, 2025

Shortly after taking the oath of office on January 20, 2025, President-elect Donald Trump issued two Executive Orders: One halted diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives within the federal government, and another mandated the use of “sex,” rather than “gender,” in official federal documents while simultaneously terminating federal funding for gender-affirming care. In the days that followed, institutions …

A faster path to becoming a doctor is possible—here’s how

Ankit Jain

Education

May 9, 2025

Medical education is a long and arduous route and can take from twelve to sixteen years of education which includes three to four years of undergraduate degree, one to two gap years before medical school, four years of medical school and three to seven years of residency training.

To address this shortage, we have come up with solutions for creating three-year medical schools, starting tracks for physician assistants/associates and nurse practitioners. …

Medical students in Korea face expulsion for speaking out

Anonymous

Education

May 6, 2025

For over a year, we, Korea’s medical students, have lived under the weight of institutional threats

What began as a disagreement over health policy escalated into an all-out campaign to silence us. We were told that if we resisted, we would be punished. At first, the punishment was supposed to be academic probation. But on May 2, 2025, something changed.

Despite university rules that previously allowed for probation or suspension, the government …

America, our health care workforce training isn’t evolving alongside our needs

William Wertheim, MD, MBA

Education

May 6, 2025

It was recently match day in the medical school world. Students who have given their lives to their studies to become doctors learned where they’d spend the next three to seven years in their chosen specialty completing their residency. This is one of the highlights each year as newly minted dermatologists, surgeons, psychiatrists, and internal medicine doctors, among many others, begin their next chapters and disperse across the country. It’s …

The quiet segregation no one talks about in medical school

Seema Pattni, MD

Education

May 3, 2025

I hated so much of medical school.

Not all of it.

I started eager,
positive and bright.
I was excited.

But I struggled to belong.

There was unwritten, informal
segregation.

Fresher’s week:
I was stoked to try out new things…
Hockey and rowing turned me away—
lack of experience.

I tried something more familiar:
Hindu society.
I was shocked—
they asked me what caste I was from.

It was even in the lecture theatre:
white rugby at the back,
serious Asians at the front,
party Asians in the middle,
cool …

The origin of medical licensing exams

Aamir Hussain, MD

Education

May 2, 2025

In January 2022, the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) Step 1 transitioned to a pass/fail format, sparking debate over how best to assess physician competence in an era where medical misinformation proliferates online. Although medical students loathe any mention of exams, we cannot deny that licensing exams are an important barrier to ensure baseline knowledge, and to prevent quacks and snake-oil salesmen from harming the public. This article explores …

Read more…

The origin of medical licensing exams

Are quotas a solution to physician shortages?

Jacob Murphy

Education

April 29, 2025

Taylor Walker, a 25-year-old pregnant woman, lived in a town of under 500 people in rural Nebraska. In 2019, she told NPR that after experiencing pregnancy pains, she endured a four-hour round-trip journey to see her physician only to discover her regular doctor was unavailable. In the end, she was forced to repeat this arduous trek multiple times just to receive necessary care. For Taylor and countless Americans, this …

Small acts of kindness can change someone’s world

Jake Rattner

Education

April 26, 2025

So much of the world is centered around looking out for ourselves. We get caught up in our own problems, our own routines, and sometimes, we forget to stop and think about what someone else might be going through. It’s easy to do—we’re all busy, all trying to figure things out. But when we step outside of our own lives, even just for a moment, we start to see the …

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