Opinion: ‘I’m pretty much all in’: An interview with a woman starting medical residency at almost 73

OpinionFirst Opinion Podcast ‘I’m pretty much all in’: An interview with a woman starting medical residency at almost 73 Dawn Zuidgeest-Craft wants to work as a physician for as long as she can Manage alerts for this article Email this article Share this article By Torie BoschJune 13, 2026 Editor, First Opinion Torie Bosch[email protected]Torie Bosch is the First Opinion editor at STAT. Below is a lightly edited, AI-generated transcript of the “First Opinion Podcast” interview with Dawn Zuidgeest-Craft. Be sure to sign up for the weekly “First Opinion Podcast” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Get alerts about each new episode by signing up for the “First Opinion Podcast” newsletter. And don’t forget to sign up for the First Opinion newsletter, delivered every Sunday. Torie Bosch: So I get a surprising number of ideas for First Opinion by watching TikTok. It’s for work, I swear. Recently, I came across a video of a woman proudly sharing the fact that her mother, age 72, had just completed medical school and matched into residency. I had to talk to the septuagenarian to find out more about going to medical school at an age when most people have already retired. And much to my delight, she agreed.Advertisement Welcome to the “First Opinion Podcast.” I’m Torie Bosch, editor of First Opinion. First Opinion is STAT’s home for big, bold ideas from health care providers, researchers, patients, and other people who have something to say about medicine’s most important and interesting topics. This season, we’re focused on the intersection of medicine and culture. Today, I’m speaking with Dawn Zuidgeest-Craft, who will turn 73 just a week after starting her residency in family medicine. After a quick break, I’ll bring you our conversation about Caribbean medical school, going from an N.P. to M.D., and what her husband thinks about all of this. Dawn Zuidgeest-Craft, welcome to the “First Opinion Podcast.”Advertisement Zuidgeest-Craft: Hello, Torie and whoever else might be listening. Bosch: So when did you first know you wanted to go to medical school? Zuidgeest-Craft: I first really knew I was going to go in that direction on an adult level when I was in college. I was kind of foretold by my mother when I was 7 that I should be a pathologist, which I had no idea what the heck that was. But I actually started really thinking about it when I was in undergrad. I was in a BSN program and I really, really loved the diagnostics and the physiology and the anatomy. That was kind of my thing, even growing up. So I knew I wanted to do that after I finished undergrad. Yeah, so I knew then. Bosch: Why did your mother say you should be a pathologist? Zuidgeest-Craft: Because I was a sickly child, believe it or not. Hospitalized multiple times, and she had bought me a microscope to keep me occupied. Well, I loved it. She loved it too, until I did a mealworm experiment. Which by the way, if you cut them in half, they don’t necessarily replicate like an earthworm. But I wanted to prove one way or the other. But in the meantime, they got all over her refrigerator because it had to be kept cool. Bosch: That’s fantastic. So, as an undergraduate, you knew you wanted to go to medical school, but now you are 72 and have just completed medical school. So congratulations. Zuidgeest-Craft: Thank you. Bosch: And you’ll be turning 73, if I’m correct, just a week after starting residency. Zuidgeest-Craft: I will. So kind of ancient to be doing that. Medical school is fun. Residency is going to be a bear. I’ve got to be real honest, I’m very familiar as an N.P. for 45 years, working in-house in the hospital, doing 24-hour in-house call for most of my adult career. I’m very familiar with the exhaustion that runs with it. And even when I did my internship as N.P., I did residency hours familiar with anybody that did that back in 1980. And those were even more extensive than the ones we’re getting into, but they’re still a lot of hours. I’m a lot anxious.Advertisement Bosch: Have you sort of been in training in some way to physically prepare yourself for residency? Zuidgeest-Craft: I’ve just been sleeping as much as I can because I know I’m going to be at a major loss after the first year. I told my doctor I wanted him to give me a physician excuse for a mommy nap once a day for an hour. Bosch: What did your physician say when you said you were about to start residency? Zuidgeest-Craft: They all think I’m insane. In all honesty, they’ve known me for years. They know I’m high energy and they know my expertise in the neonatal world. They’ve worked with me, a lot of them, in different ways. But it’s an interesting response. Some are like, “I would never,” others are like, they love their practice and they’re still practicing in their late 60s, so it’s not that far from, yeah, so. Bosch: So I want to get back to sort of some reactions around this and what’s coming next. But before we get that, I want to talk a little bit more about your background. So you mentioned that you were an N.P., a nurse practitioner, for how many years? Zuidgeest-Craft: Forty-five. Bosch: So why, why go to medical school after 45 years practicing? Zuidgeest-Craft: I had a really strong desire to pursue this after undergrad, I went ahead and started my premed requirements because even today, the premed requirements are, let me put it this way, I don’t think they’re appropriate, but nonetheless, that’s what you have to — you get the hurdles, you have to jump, take the MCAT. Well, I started them right after undergrad, met my first husband, got pregnant with my first daughter, and had happened to just get accepted to the first-ever [neonatal nurse practitioner] program. And it was going to be very medical. And I thought, “Well, this is great. I can do both. I can be a mom, I can become an NP.” But even in my practice, you know, paving the way for everybody that followed me, that practice is very intensive. It’s an intensive care practice. And to have a previous nurse now be in the role of provider, medical provider and organizer, and head of a resuscitation team and all that goes with that — it never gave me the independence of decision-making. Sometimes I liked that. Sometimes when I really wasn’t sure, you know, then I liked that, but there were a lot of times where you felt like you’re kind of butting heads with somebody else’s, you know, practice modality. And I really didn’t like that.Advertisement As a matter of fact, we hired somebody and I got into a major conflict with that person when they were first hired to the point where they’re — this is back in the ’80s — and the comment to me was, “There’s no way you will ever know what I know.” And I’d been a practitioner already by that point for a number of years and I felt like, well, I’m in front of a lot, but at the same time, from that point, I wanted to know what didn’t I know, you know? So I was practicing and then as my life was turning over, I divorced and between the stress of that relationship with that particular physician and home issues, you know, it was time. Then I said, “OK, now I’m going to go back for it. I’m going to apply to med school.” I’m going to do the premed requirements again. So I started retaking some of the things I was taking. I actually had gotten everything done except for my second organic. Took the MCAT even though I hadn’t finished organic yet. Applied at 35 to Michigan State. They actually interviewed me, sat me down, said, “You’re a great candidate. You need to finish organic and come back.” OK, all that. I meet, you know, disruption in life No. 2, my second husband. And we got married. I was just over 35. He was younger. He had no children. I had two children from my first marriage. And I said, “Well, I still really want to go med school, but tell you what, why don’t we make a few babies by the time I’m 40, I’ll apply when I’m 39, I’ll get in when I am 40,” blah, blah. Well, my mother used to always say, you know, make plans, God’s laughing, which is the truth, right? So yes, indeed. I made plans and the laugh was on me because I got pregnant so easily, the first two pregnancies, and then our combination just did not work. And then we went through every infertility thing in the world that you can go through. And I didn’t get successful. We started, I think, when I was 36, 37, and I was 42 when we finally had our first one. Unfortunately, that pregnancy was extremely complicated. She was compromised during the pregnancy, had issues. She’s now 30. Almost 31. But nonetheless, it held me back. It’s like, “OK, I guess I’m not going to pursue this now.” She had too many needs, a lot of special needs. And then when she was 5, she got deathly ill, and we almost lost her.Advertisement Now I’m 47. And when we didn’t lose her, which was wonderful, I looked at my husband. I said, “That was way too close.” And I loved having the Zuidgeest-Craft household. You know, our family is half Zuidgeests, half Crafts. I said, “Let’s do it again.” He goes, “You would do that at 47?” I go, “Yeah, I think I would,” and I still wasn’t thinking on the med school thing. So then we started the whole process again. And when you’re that old, just for those who have walked the infertility world, um, the comment by my specialist was “your eggs are 47 years old, you really shouldn’t use them. You should use donor eggs.” And I’m like “OK, I guess,” I don’t care. It’s my husband who only has one, you know, genetic child. All right. So we go through the whole process. I get pregnant with twins and miscarry them. Well, that was awful. And then we were going to do another cycle, the eggs that we originally had, which by the way, if you ever go through this world, you pick eggs like you do sperm donor: hair color, eye color, GPA. I had picked a nice taller version of me. Well, they go, “Those things don’t look good … but somebody else is donating to me, would you like them?” I said, “Well, what do they look like?” Nothing like me whatsoever. And I did get pregnant with that donor and it’s anonymous. And my youngest daughter is red-haired, blue-eyed, and looks not a thing like me whatsoever, which is fine. But she’s a lovely, lovely young woman. She’s just graduated undergrad. Bosch: Congratulations. And so you decide, what, four years ago, five years ago that now is the time for medical school? Zuidgeest-Craft: Well, actually I still had this strong desire, especially because I was still in the practice. I was also teaching full time. After I had her in all honesty, being up all night, on a regular schedule, killed me. So I went ahead and I took a full-time anatomy and nursing professor position at a local college and I stayed per diem. And I worked two to three 24-hour shifts a month instead of all the time. Especially because I had a young one. My original book, by the way, was going to be called: “From Breastfeeding to Menopause.” Because, let’s face it, who has children at 49? Speaking of, did you know that when you’re 49 and then you get Social Security age, you still have a minor, and you actually get Social Security for them? Most women don’t know that.Advertisement Bosch: No, well, that’s useful information. Zuidgeest-Craft: It is, I would never have thought. Yeah. Most of the times it’s an older guy who had a younger woman pregnant and they get, yeah, whatever. So, yeah. So we got money for her to put away to college. So anyway, she was also a preemie. I was 50. At 50, I decided, you know, I’m too old. I guess I’m not going to get to go, but I really loved medicine. So around that same time, I started taking a course from University of Florida med school in medical anatomy and physiology, which I strongly recommend for anybody. Maybe revisiting this whole concept of going to med school. It’s an online master’s level certificate program. It is excellent. You prep for med school better than anything I can think of right now. The only thing that could have included that I didn’t have was a good biochem class as part of it. And so I did that. And I really think that that was my ticket to doing well when I went through med school at this older age because a lot of the other sciences and everything and been pretty far back. Right? And although I was teaching, and by the way, I did finish my organic, I went where I was, teaching I did, you know, finish some of that organic. Bosch: So wonderful. Then you decided? Zuidgeest-Craft: Well, actually, no, I didn’t decide — life decided for me. So now I finished that coursework. That was in 2016. Then Covid hit, right? And during that time, my husband and I have two properties, the other property is a cottage. And we were out at the cottage one night. And in that same time period, my husband, the other reason I really hadn’t gone is because my husband had a bunch of different medical crises, weird diseases that we could go into a whole other lecture about because they’re very bizarre and very unusual. And he actually goes to Boston for his care. That’s how unusual they are. Anyway, we dealt with all that. We’re at the cottage and he gets up one night and goes to use the facilities and he stands up and passes right out. And he’s relatively tall, he’s like 6-2, and thump, right on the ground. Covid had just hit, it was 2020. I get, you know, because I still work to the hospital system, I got daily reports about how many Covid patients there were. We had 176 Covid patients at our most proximal hospital. That’s part of the system we are part of. And he passed out and I couldn’t even feel his pulse. I could feel a thready pulse at best. Ultimately, I was so hesitant to call 911 because of Covid. At that point, if you’re a medical, you knew if you got into the hospital, you were going to get it. … And there was nothing to treat you for. There was nothing at that point. So I kept saying, “if I start doing compressions … I’m going to do it.” Well, I didn’t have to start compressions, but it took him quite a bit of time to get around. We called his cardiologist, discussed, dropped him off, and had him checked out. Of course, it’s Covid so I can’t go in. The fall, I couldn’t find any focal problems.Advertisement A month later, after everybody goes back to school, if you remember that era, and when everybody went back after that Christmas time, it was in December. He started complaining with this vicious headache behind his orbit. And I’m like, you know, I’m not sure. A lot of people are having Covid strokes now. … One thing led to another. And ultimately, we found out a month after the fall that he’d been bleeding into his head the entire time. And he had a massive subdural hemorrhage that midline shifted his brain, which didn’t become obvious until a few days into this week that headache was getting worse and worse. He essentially acted stroked. He couldn’t speak. He didn’t know where he was. He called 911. They called me into the CT room and showed me and I’m like, “Oh my God.” We had gone through a lot with his cardiac and other renal issues. This was over the top and I just fell apart, honestly. Then that was in January. By about April, he can speak, walk and talk and do all those things you’re supposed to do, lots of therapy. Back to almost his normal, not quite. And I sat him down. I said, “Well, honey, you know, this is crazy. You literally almost died. And life is too dang short. What’s on your bucket list?” And he said, “I really want to travel the world.” And I said, “Well, I still want to go to med school.” So that was in 2021 when we were talking and ultimately, um, I started looking into Caribbean schools because I thought, “Oh, come on, it’s 69. Who in the hay is going to look at me now?” That was one thing. And I knew of a nun who was 50 that went. So I thought yeah, whatever. But I didn’t know anybody in my age group, right? So I started applying and I did apply to the one that I attended and had no idea what I was getting into. Lot of negative comments from my peer professors: “Are you sure you want to really do that? Why don’t you do something domestic?” That’s because it was going to take me. And as a matter of fact, one of my peers who actually taught me organics, she was like, “You know that they had a lawsuit against that school.” And I didn’t. I look it up, I go, “Eh, you know, I guess I’ll find out.”Advertisement Well, I’m so glad I went where I went because I went to the school and they had two campuses. One was in Anguilla and I highly recommend if you’ve never been to the Caribbean. You want to check it out. It’s across from St. Martin, it’s absolutely gorgeous. It is, it’s like being on a rural island though, there’s nothing there but the beaches and the resorts, and that’s about it. And medical school. Well, I don’t know the population because it’s only a 17-mile-long island and it’s an extremely, you know, small population and that’s where the school was. And I got to snorkel three times a week. I had my best fishy friends that I never knew I was going to have. I would walk to campus, campus was one building, and I kept thinking I must have been a little Anguillan girl in my previous life because I just loved it and I felt very at home. Bosch: That sounds like the most peaceful medical school experience I’ve ever heard of. Zuidgeest-Craft: It was. And the only thing I can say is, obviously, we’re a lot more liquid financially. You know, when you have somebody else that’s living on a very expensive island, by the way, you know, water, everything is, you’re at the time that that island was taxing everything at 13%. Because in ’18, they got hit by a horrible hurricane, and they took a big loan out from the U.K. And so they had this (Goods and Services Tax) that was ridiculous. If you ate out for a burger, you know, you had two of you that had basically bar food. And a beer, it was a hundred bucks. That’s because they were charged a 13% plus gratuity. It was literally a hundred dollars. So, you know, most students couldn’t afford to go. Yeah. Bosch: So what was your experience like with the other students and with the professors at medical school? Zuidgeest-Craft: They let us do our first semester online, if you chose, and there were 120 of us to start, OK. And then we wound up, and I think that was between both campuses, I graduated with 30.Advertisement Caribbean medical schools pretty much were designed so anybody could go to med school, if you could pay for it. You know, you pay the tuition, which by the way, some of the schools are significantly less than domestic. Some of them are comparable, but you pay for. And so I met a number of different individuals, most everybody, I’d say the average age was 28, but this is the best. So I was 69 and the youngest was 19. So we had a 50-year span of space between, and he had done all of his high school and everything through Covid and college credits, everything, yeah. And isn’t that great? I love it. So we became friends too. Bosch: Did you call him Doogie Howser? Zuidgeest-Craft: No, we didn’t. Bosch: I’m sure, because he probably doesn’t know who Doogie Howser was. Zuidgeest-Craft: I don’t know. We called him Brian because it was Brian. He was from California. There were people, again, Hawaii, California, the Midwest, other people who had to get into these schools, you have to have American schooling. Some people were from parts of the Middle East, and then they would go to the U.S. for a few years, and they applied to these schools. … We had people literally from around the world. Speaking of, that just reminds me, I had an email from one of them. Anyway, so yeah, it was a great place. And there was one other gentleman, this was so cute. He was 60, I think, 59 or 60. And he had been an oil man from the U.K., or Ireland, and all of his life (and it got to a point where he made his millions), it was like, “no, I want to go to med school.” But he really didn’t have the preparation to do it. He’s bright. And that’s the truth about a lot of the students you have that come to these schools because they are enthusiastic, bright individuals, but they don’t have the background to enter medicine at that level. So I made really good friends with a young man, 50-year-old from Hawaii, and another young woman who was 50 years old also. She had been a previous labor and delivery nurse. Her husband was a neonatologist and peds intensivist, and she was just lovely. They had spent their entire adult lives raising their boys on a sailboat. We called her a yogi because she taught us yoga on the beach. Oh my gosh, it was a phenomenal experience. We met a lot of great people on the island too. We attended a local church and many of the inhabitants of that island are similar to New Orleans in terms of that heritage. It was great. It was awesome. Bosch: That’s great. And so then how about clinicals? Did you go back to the States for that? Zuidgeest-Craft: Don’t do any clinicals there at all. All the clinicals are in the U.S. And they have three, this particular school has three clinical sites. One is in Chicago, one is in West Virginia, and one is South Texas. And so for my clinical, and since my husband wanted to travel, of course we got to do the island. And while I was there, he went to 14 other little islands while I was on the island. But we went to Chicago for a year, which was great for all my core. And then we went to West Virginia in the month of October and we hiked every day we could outside of clinical. It was great. And then I did get to go to New York for a phenomenal month at Sloan Kettering and then also another three months in South Texas, which is a whole other world if you don’t know. You’re about down by the border, but I was in the valley of South Texas, so. Bosch: And so, you know, you had this kind of idyllic medical school experience. And why go to residency now instead of just saying, you know, “I did it. I got my medical degree”? Zuidgeest-Craft: That was my original intent. And then literally my last rotation, although I did apply, started applying for match because I know what I’m getting into. I think a lot of young wannabes don’t have a clue, but I have a big clue. But I was in my last rotation and most of my attendings were younger than me. I had two older and this particular one was just about a year younger than. And he goes, “what is this, a trophy for you?” I said, “well, kind of.” He goes, “no,” he goes, “you’re too good with the patients. You’ve got to serve your community. You got, you got to go do a residency.” And he wanted me to actually do one there in South Texas. And I said, “OK.” And I had a nightmare about it that night. And I woke up and I told my husband, “I guess I’m going to go.” Bosch: And what did your husband say? Zuidgeest-Craft: ’Cause he knew that, you know, he’s also a bit hesitant about this. ’Cause he’s very familiar with the hours I worked when I was basically covering two units with a bunch of other practitioners and attendings. It’s, it’s grueling. Um, so he’s not looking forward to my inability to be participative, but at the same time, we have a home close to the place where I’m doing residency and it’s going to be renovated and he’s going to be working on that puppy this whole next year. Bosch: And so what field are you going into? Is it family medicine? Is that right? Zuidgeest-Craft: Family medicine, that’s another thing. Like for me to become a neonatologist would be five more years, minimum, maybe six. And I had to pick something that was a shorter residency so I could, I really did enjoy my family med rotations. And as family, which is I’ve learned since, there’s many different subspecialties you can focus on. Some family meds are heavy OB. I mean, they deliver, but there is a clinic close to my home by the lake and it’s very rural, very rural kind of like where they said there are more cows than people. I … that’s kind of about the level I want to be so I would like to work in the clinic. There is a local little hospital depending upon what the needs are — that’s my ultimate goal. Bosch: So you’ve done a lot of press around this. Your wonderful daughter, Ginger Zee, chief meteorologist at ABC News, did a TikTok about you graduating and matching, which is how I found out about you and asked you about trying to write your First Opinion essay. And it got other attention too. So, you know, I think one thing I saw somebody say somewhere was, you, know, maybe it’s not fair for someone to take a residency slot if you aren’t going to be practicing for another 40 years. So I don’t know with your energy, maybe you could practice for 40 years post this. But what would you say? Zuidgeest-Craft: I would say I have some agreement actually with them to a certain degree. But I do know that there are some physicians that work to 100. There is one, you’ve probably looked at them. … One of them is a neurologist. I’m like, “Oh my gosh, his brain didn’t get affected.” And I think that in some capacity, I could see myself working until I physically cannot. And I’d think that that’s the piece that’s always been part of me. It was always a standing joke as I was moving toward retirement age and everybody that knew me was like, “there’s no way you’re going to retire,” because I kind of thrive in my practice or whether I’m doing teaching, and I also thrive in my parenting and grandparenting. So I’m pretty much all in and you know, if I’m blessed with health, hallelujah. Bosch: What was the match process like for you? Zuidgeest-Craft: So this was interesting too. Because I really was not really thinking I wanted to do a residency, but I wanted to dive in a little bit. I only applied to 12 programs. And if you know anything about match, what’s normal? 100. No, I’m not kidding. Yeah. Some people as much as 140. Because especially if you’re an IMG, an international medical graduate, because the competition is pathetically stiff. And depending upon how you did on boards, and I didn’t do as well on my Step 2 as I was hoping. I did better on, there’s something called the comp. I did adequate enough, but I got those scores. I’m like, ah, I know the business of the selection process. I sat on selection committees at all different levels. I get it. And I thought, “Well, maybe I’ll get an interview or two.” So I applied, and I didn’t do just family med. I did some peds and transitional, a transitional year, which is an interesting concept if you don’t know anything about that. It’s where the new graduate can do essentially an intern year and then apply it to radiation oncology, dermatology, where they’re even more competitive. And so that wasn’t my intent for transitional. Mine was, “well, maybe I’ll just do a transitional year, get a limited license, and work up at the clinic.” Well, I get one interview for transitional, but I did get one interview for family med, and that was here in Grand Rapids. And so 1 out of 12, and statistically, that’s about what people get when they do the 100, right? They usually get 10 to 12 interviews. Some people more if your board scores are really great. Well, I didn’t get that match. Match Day comes. I don’t get the match. Well, they have something called SOAP, which is right after the day after, which is called Supplemental Offering Application Process. I dove into SOAP, which was interesting. I applied to 25 SOAP apps. I got seven requests for interviews out of the 25 during the SOAP process. And they didn’t come all the first day. But the first ones that came in were in Lansing, Mich., and I was really considering doing that. I mean, all of a sudden I was all in, I was going to do it. And then the second day of SOAP, I get the call from Muskegon, which is where I’m going to be. And that was my first choice from the very beginning, but they never even called me the first round. And then when they got a hold of me, they go, “We don’t know what happened, we never saw your app.” I go, “You’re kidding.” They said, “We really apologize. We think it was a computer glitch, blah, blah.” Whatever. I said, “OK, let’s do it.” So we do the interview. And by the end of the interview, actually, I was so pleased because I could tell it was going to be a good match. And I got notified right away that, yes, you matched. And I also, though, had interviewed in Hawaii and down in Arkansas because my brother lives there — I picked places where either I wanted to be or I had relatives. I did apply to a lot around Ginger in New York and I was really surprised I didn’t get one call from any of those, maybe because my age. And you don’t know if there was ageism in any of these. But yeah, it definitely came up in my interview. I will tell you that there was definitely a discussion about, have you thought about how this is going to be? I think it’s because I am very aware of what I’m getting into that there is no naivete to it whatsoever. And, you know, and it comes with some hesitancy, as I mentioned, in the sense of, I’m going to give it my all, and luckily, and I’m so blessed, so blessed. This is not a have-to, this is a want-to, um, this is not a financial have-to. You know, most people at this level have debt up the you-know-where, and I was able to take funding from years of working and have no debt for medical school. So that’s a really unusual place for most people to be. And we’re half laughing. We’re like, “I wonder how many residents have come to them, have Medicare.” So when I have to figure out, health insurance is like, Ah no! Bosch: They’re going to have so much fun with you in HR, it’s gonna be a blast. So terribly, we’re starting to run out of time, but I have a couple more questions I really want to get to. So as you’ve mentioned, you were a nurse practitioner, which makes you a pretty non-traditional MD candidate, I believe. What did you learn in medical school about the difference between being a nurse practitioner and being an M.D.? Zuidgeest-Craft: You know, I actually never thought there was much difference as a nurse practitioner. And I can honestly say in practice, there isn’t. And your reality is you’re a medical provider, whether you’re an M.D., an N.P., a P.A., you’re medical provider. The difference I’m bringing to this now that I didn’t, I wouldn’t have had if I hadn’t spent this amount of time and effort and studying is, I have a broader sense of the needs of all ages. I was so focused in my N.P. role. And I’m still feeling very expert about neonatal topics and neonatology. And so now I feel much more expert. And the thing that the NP programs don’t offer, unless they’re doctoral level, is the core sciences that you need to apply to medical practice. What I have found is some physicians along the way have also lost that. So. What I have learned is that the basic sciences of medicine need to be revisited and need to revisited. And I’ve done that essentially by going the path I’ve gone, but it makes you even better as a patient educator. And so I think that I can’t say there’s a difference in practice as much as maybe a difference in focus. And I’m sure I’ll learn a lot more in residency. So as a student, an M.D. student, you’re observing, right? Now I’ll be doing the work. But as an N.P., I wasn’t observing. I did all the work, I wrote all the orders, I attended all the deliveries, I did it all. And now I’ll being doing it all again in a whole different patient population. So … Bosch: If someone about your age came up to you and said, “Should I go to medical school?” What would you tell them? Zuidgeest-Craft: I tell them, if you’re healthy enough and you have the passion, go for it. Absolutely. You know, and I think that that’s the other thing. It’s like we’re lifelong learners if we’re so blessed. And I’m more than aware of this as a blessing. And the other that is different between a younger student and an older student is you recognize that being in that space when somebody’s extremely ill, it’s a privilege. When you’re only there in your younger years, trying to make your living and make the next paycheck and buy the next thing, and I hate to say it, but your focus is different, you know? And it’s so unfortunate that the one role isn’t supported in the other way, right? So this, I think, I bet you if you talked with a lot of physicians even, they would say, they even leave when it becomes either a financial burden because of malpractice. Or a corporate burden because they’re changing what they really want to be able to do, which is to provide care at the level that they want to provide. I think if you read a lot, and maybe you’ve seen a lot already of discussions about large hospital corporations coming in and buying private practices and the whole thing, it’s become, there is a business of medicine, I get that, but I don’t have to be in business. I just get to take care of patients, which is great. Bosch: Sounds like the medical dream. Zuidgeest-Craft: It is, it is. And I’m very aware. I am not naive to the fact that I am very blessed. Bosch: Well, Dr. Zuidgeest-Craft, thank you so much for coming on the First Opinion Podcast. Zuidgeest-Craft: OK, hope to see you again sometime, Torie. Bosch: And thank you for listening to the “First Opinion Podcast.” It’s produced by Hyacinth Empinado. Alissa Ambrose is the senior producer, and Rick Berke is the executive producer. You can share your opinion on the show by emailing me at [email protected]. And please leave a review or rating on whatever platform you use to get your podcasts. Until next time, I’m Torie Bosch, and please don’t keep your opinions to yourself. education, Physicians Submit a correction requestReprints Torie Bosch Editor, First Opinion Torie Bosch is the First Opinion editor at STAT. Newsletter Weekly alerts when a new episode drops from STAT’s First Opinion podcast Recommended First Opinion June 12, 2026 I’ve spent 40 years in research. I have never seen a threat to science like the new grantmaking rule First Opinion June 12, 2026 Ebola outbreak response requires engaging with religious traditions and leaders Advertisement First Opinion June 11, 2026 We published in Nature Medicine in 2025 for free. In 2026, it cost us $12,850 First Opinion June 11, 2026 How long Covid’s scientific stalemate made it politically erasable First Opinion June 10, 2026 Even in abortion-protecting states, teens face unnecessary barriers to care Subscriber Picks