Med Schools Harvest Crop of Second-Career Doctors

Five years ago, Daniel Eyink was a gourmet chef. At graduation ceremonies a week ago, he became a doctor, one of a throng of new graduates who switched to medicine after rearing families and pursuing other careers.

This year’s crop of medical school graduates includes a former bartender, an opera singer, a tennis pro, a shipbuilder, a trombone player, a tree surgeon, a priest and an aerobics instructor.

They were accepted to medical schools at a time when applications were low, and life experience began to be considered an acceptable credential.

“I think I can relate to patients more as people, knowing what they’ve struggled through,” said Eyink, 39, who graduated from the University of Massachusetts Medical School. “I’ve had some wonderful experiences talking to patients about being a chef. Everybody can relate to food.”

According to the Assn. of American Medical Colleges, there were more than 42,600 applicants to U.S. medical schools in 1971. That number plummeted to 26,721 in 1989, when this year’s class applied for admission. It has since climbed to a record 42,808.

“There has been an increasing trend among medical school admissions committees to look at all of a person’s life experiences in a more open light,” said Dr. Jeffrey Bernhard, associate dean of admissions at UMass Medical.

Many applicants who switched to medicine from other fields said they didn’t think they could handle medical school when they were younger, but came to wish that they had tried.

“I started out back in the dark ages as an undergraduate in a pre-med curriculum, but I felt like a little country boy gone to the big city,” said Robert Lindsay, who changed his undergraduate major and became a farmer.

Lindsay, 38, decided that he wanted more from life and was accepted to the Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine. He plans to go into family practice near his hometown of Massillon, Ohio.

Diana Duff, a 43-year-old former oil company geologist, found herself acting as “a mother hen” on rounds with younger students at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

“They’re incredibly bright, but they haven’t in some cases developed social skills,” said Duff, whose son also is in medical school. “I took it on myself to, in a friendly way, help them out with that. That extra 20 years of life gives me a little broader perspective.”

Of course, some life experiences can be more helpful than others.

Bill Guthrie, who graduated from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, is a former trombone player who once backed up singer Tom Jones.

“I think that got me into medical school,” said Guthrie, 41, “because the dean was a big Tom Jones fan.”