PURPOSE
Legislative and policy changes affecting medical school funding have pushed
education policy to the forefront. With rising levels of medical student
debt, financial worries have already become more palpable stressors for
medical students. This qualitative study documenting recent insights from
second year medical students identifies specific causes of financial worry in
an ever-changing policy landscape.
METHODS
The dataset analyzed consisted of IRB-approved longitudinal interviews with
29 medical students at an allopathic institution in the US. A group of
incoming medical students agreed to complete twice-yearly interviews focused
on their real-time experiences of potential stressors and career choice
variables during training, including financial concerns.
RESULTS
As existing research documents, our participants are impacted by financial
stressors. However we found that in addition to general stress, worries
specifically related to policy changes were endorsed by 17.2% of participants
(n= 5). Worries are concentrated among students that presently have student
loans (29.4% of subgroup). Students cite worries regarding specific
Department of Education policies, such as a borrowing cap on GradPLUS loans
and future availability of diversity scholarships. Students also express
concern regarding interest rates on student loans and housing costs. Students
further cite difficulty reapplying for student loans and underestimating
expenses with budgeting.
CONCLUSIONS
This study demonstrates that medical students are acutely and immediately
affected by policy changes and related uncertainties. Concurrently, medical
students are also acutely impacted by broader general economic stressors such
as rising living costs. Ultimately, the factors identified have the potential
to increase already high stress levels in medical students navigating
training in an ever-changing policy landscape. Additional expertise and
real-time support from medical school stakeholders is warranted to minimize
negative impact on students.