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.
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.”
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.
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…
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