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Medical Student Life & Education Report 2020
Gregory Twachtman; Ellie Kincaid | October 23, 2020
| Contributor Information
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Medical Student Life & Education Report 2020
Gregory Twachtman; Ellie Kincaid | October 23, 2020 | Contributor Information
In addition to dealing with the typical stresses of exams and work schedules, medical students' experience in 2020 has been shaped dramatically by COVID-19, according to our survey of more than 2600 students.
As in prior years, we asked current students about various aspects of their educational experience, including licensing examinations, future plans, financial concerns, burnout, sexual harassment, and their confidence about becoming a good doctor. This year's report also helps quantify the toll that COVID-19 has taken on medical students thus far and shows how the pandemic may affect the doctors of tomorrow.
(Note: Label values in charts are rounded, but rankings are calculations based on raw data to avoid rounding errors.)
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Medical Student Life & Education Report 2020
Gregory Twachtman; Ellie Kincaid | October 23, 2020 | Contributor Information
As it has for physicians, COVID-19 has weighed heavily on students. About 1 in 10 said they have personally known a resident, faculty member, or medical professional who died from COVID-19. In addition to this personal experience of the pandemic's toll, 42% of medical students think coronavirus-related interruptions and changes to their education will have at least a moderately negative impact on their ability to practice medicine as they start their careers. More women (46%) expect at least a moderately negative impact, compared with 36% of men.
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Medical Student Life & Education Report 2020
Gregory Twachtman; Ellie Kincaid | October 23, 2020 | Contributor Information
The travails and hardship of the pandemic have only reinforced many medical students' decisions to become physicians.
Still, some have strong concerns. "I disagree with the majority," Tino Delamerced, third-year medical student at Brown University, said. "This pandemic has been discouraging to me. Early on, we were all reading about hospitals muzzling doctors and nurses when they spoke out about PPE. [We were] seeing behind the curtain and seeing how business administrators were making these decisions and telling doctors — who they probably think are replaceable — to go into hospitals without proper PPE … To see doctors not be able to be vocal and feel threatened of losing their job if they are vocal, I think that has to be discouraging."
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Medical Student Life & Education Report 2020
Gregory Twachtman; Ellie Kincaid | October 23, 2020 | Contributor Information
About two fifths of students are at least moderately concerned that COVID-19 interruptions to their education may delay their graduation. Women more often showed concern, with 47% being at least moderately concerned, compared with 36% of men. Those just starting medical school are more worried about how the ongoing pandemic may affect them down the road, with 60% of first-year medical students saying they are at least moderately concerned vs 33% of fourth-year students.
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Medical Student Life & Education Report 2020
Gregory Twachtman; Ellie Kincaid | October 23, 2020 | Contributor Information
Nearly half (45%) of students surveyed said they were satisfied or very satisfied with how their institutions handled the pandemic, although men (49%) were more likely to say so than women (43%).
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Medical Student Life & Education Report 2020
Gregory Twachtman; Ellie Kincaid | October 23, 2020 | Contributor Information
About a third of medical students say COVID-19 has had at least some impact on their specialty choice. The effect is more pronounced for younger students, with 41% of first-year trainees indicating that the pandemic is at least slightly influencing which specialty they are likely to pursue.
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Medical Student Life & Education Report 2020
Gregory Twachtman; Ellie Kincaid | October 23, 2020 | Contributor Information
Not much has changed in terms of the top specialties. Students' top five choices are the same as in our 2018 report. This year's respondents also overwhelmingly said that personal interest in the field was the biggest factor in their choice. A slightly greater share of women (76% vs 68% of men) cited this reason, whereas men more often cited lifestyle (20% vs 15% of women). These findings are similar to those of our previous report.
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Medical Student Life & Education Report 2020
Gregory Twachtman; Ellie Kincaid | October 23, 2020 | Contributor Information
The vast majority of students (84%) said that future earnings were at least moderately important in choosing a specialty, about the same as in our 2018 report. This year, 58% of men said future earnings are important or very important to their specialty choice, compared with 47% of women.
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Medical Student Life & Education Report 2020
Gregory Twachtman; Ellie Kincaid | October 23, 2020 | Contributor Information
The overwhelming majority (87%) of medical students said that COVID-19 had at least some negative impact on their experience of taking United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) tests.
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Medical Student Life & Education Report 2020
Gregory Twachtman; Ellie Kincaid | October 23, 2020 | Contributor Information
Despite COVID-related interruptions, more than half (58%) of medical students still said they felt prepared or very prepared for their USMLE tests, which is comparable to the results of our 2018 report. More men (66%) than women (52%) said they felt prepared.
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Medical Student Life & Education Report 2020
Gregory Twachtman; Ellie Kincaid | October 23, 2020 | Contributor Information
Only 45% of respondents said they favored or strongly favored the USMLE Step 1 test moving to pass/fail, with more women than men (49% vs 40%) preferring this change. Students answered similarly about the prospect of Step 2 Clinical Knowledge making the switch to pass/fail.
"There was a lot more opposition than I was expecting for Step 1 to be changed to pass/fail," said Ramie Fathy, a fourth-year medical student at the University of Pennsylvania. "Step 1 is not the best exam to gauge a student's clinical capabilities. A change to pass/fail is appropriate because it would allow for increased emphasis on other parts of the application for other standardized tests that are better metrics for those qualities."
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Medical Student Life & Education Report 2020
Gregory Twachtman; Ellie Kincaid | October 23, 2020 | Contributor Information
Licensing examinations are just one of the factors that result in student distress. More than three quarters of respondents said they have felt burned out at least sometimes, about the same as in our previous report. More women than men (81% vs 68%) said they have at least sometimes felt burned out. Somewhat expectedly, these feelings were more common among third- and fourth-year students (80% and 77%, respectively) compared with first-year students (68%).
"If the burnout begins as early as medical school and then you still have 4 more years of residency where the burnout is supposed to be even higher, that is not a good start," said Emily Kahoud, a third-year medical student at Rutgers University. "We don't want students graduating medical school already burned out. That is something everyone should be concerned about."
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Medical Student Life & Education Report 2020
Gregory Twachtman; Ellie Kincaid | October 23, 2020 | Contributor Information
Both men and women ranked the ability to master clinical information as their biggest challenge in medical school. Work-life balance was the next most common concern for men, whereas passing educational requirements and mandatory tests was next for women.
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Medical Student Life & Education Report 2020
Gregory Twachtman; Ellie Kincaid | October 23, 2020 | Contributor Information
Half of surveyed medical school students are expecting to have more than $200,000 of debt after completion of their education. That's up from 45% in our 2018 report.
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Medical Student Life & Education Report 2020
Gregory Twachtman; Ellie Kincaid | October 23, 2020 | Contributor Information
Most medical students have neither experienced nor witnessed unwanted advances (verbal, physical, sexual) from either patients, other students, or faculty, which is similar to results from our 2018 report. Women (26%) reported unwanted advances from patients more so than men (10%); however, fewer overall reported these experiences than in our previous report. In regard to source of unwanted advances, 18% of women said they had such encounters with other students vs only 6% of men.
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Medical Student Life & Education Report 2020
Gregory Twachtman; Ellie Kincaid | October 23, 2020 | Contributor Information
Half of women reported experiencing some kind of bias from faculty, students, or patients during medical school. Gender bias was reported by 40%, while 22% reported bias based on race/ethnicity. By contrast, 25% of men said they have experienced bias, with 15% reporting racial/ethnic bias and 9% reporting gender bias. Once again, these results are similar to those of our previous report.
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Medical Student Life & Education Report 2020
Gregory Twachtman; Ellie Kincaid | October 23, 2020 | Contributor Information
Nearly half of students said they have considered leaving medical school at some point. Comparatively fewer men (41%) than women (49%) have at least thought about quitting medical education.
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Medical Student Life & Education Report 2020
Gregory Twachtman; Ellie Kincaid | October 23, 2020 | Contributor Information
The desire to help those in need remained the top factor influencing both men's and women's choice to go to medical school. The prestige of a medical career has become less of a factor since 2016, when 37% cited it, compared with 33% in 2020.
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Medical Student Life & Education Report 2020
Gregory Twachtman; Ellie Kincaid | October 23, 2020 | Contributor Information
Respondents gave a resounding "yes" to the idea of learning more about the business side of the medical field while in school.
"There is this black box of insurance billing and coding and what an RVU means. These are the things that are really going to dictate our daily lives in the future … yet we get no coverage of that in medical school," said Travis Benson, a third-year student at Harvard Medical School.
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Medical Student Life & Education Report 2020
Gregory Twachtman; Ellie Kincaid | October 23, 2020 | Contributor Information
Most medical students (88%) find it at least somewhat important to learn about health inequities in school. The topic is commonly taught; only 8% of medical students said they have not learned about health inequities. About half of medical students said the education they have received on health inequities is at least sufficient.
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Medical Student Life & Education Report 2020
Gregory Twachtman; Ellie Kincaid | October 23, 2020 | Contributor Information
Nearly three quarters of students (71%) said they are somewhat or very satisfied with the quality of their learning experience, which is similar to our 2018 results. Of first-year students, 78% reported being at least somewhat satisfied, compared with 70% of fourth-year students.
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Medical Student Life & Education Report 2020
Gregory Twachtman; Ellie Kincaid | October 23, 2020 | Contributor Information
Students' reasons for feeling dissatisfied with their education varied widely.
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Medical Student Life & Education Report 2020
Gregory Twachtman; Ellie Kincaid | October 23, 2020 | Contributor Information
More than half of medical students (60%) said they have at least sometimes doubted their ability to be a competent practicing physician, about the same as in our previous report. Women (64%) more often than men (55%) expressed having doubts about this at least sometimes.
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Medical Student Life & Education Report 2020
Gregory Twachtman; Ellie Kincaid | October 23, 2020 | Contributor Information
Ultimately, almost three quarters of students would recommend their current institution to prospective medical students. The percentage that would make that recommendation declines as students advance in years, with 82% of first-year students and 78% of second-year students saying they would at least somewhat recommend their school, whereas 69% and 66% of third- and fourth-year students, respectively, would do so.
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Medical Student Life & Education Report 2020
Gregory Twachtman; Ellie Kincaid | October 23, 2020 | Contributor Information
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Medical Student Life & Education Report 2020
Gregory Twachtman; Ellie Kincaid | October 23, 2020 | Contributor Information
Medical students from across the United States were asked about debt, work-life balance, harassment/discrimination, and other essential aspects of the educational experience. See how they responded.Medscape Features Slideshow, Sept 2018
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Gregory Twachtman
Reporter, Medscape Business of Medicine
Ellie Kincaid
Assistant Managing Editor, Medscape
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