The COVID-19 pandemic is having an impact on the number of students applying to medical school.
Central Michigan University says applications are up 15 percent from last year and schools nationwide say applications are up 18 percent overall.
Lateef Shafau just finished his first semester of medical school at Central Michigan University, during a global pandemic.
“There are pro’s and there are defiantly cons to that, at the end of the day in order to help us be more prepared to enter this field, we really have to immerse ourselves and see what is going on in the world,” said Shafau.
CMU’s College of Medicine is seeing more applicants.
It’s a trend being seen nationwide with applications up 18 percent and attributed to the pandemic.
“That’s a pretty significant number, especially nationally. Similar to what happened after 9/11 where we had a huge increase in the number of people wanting to join the military, I think COVID has probably impacted a lot of applicants communities, their families and that’s been a real big motivation for them to want to be a part of the solution to this,” said College Director of Admissions Chris Austin.
And the pandemic has certainly played a role in Lateef’s first year of medical school as well, with sometimes painful, real-life lessons, he’ll carry with him as he continues studying and enters the medical field.
“Being in medical school during a pandemic has really helped me with learning about public health, about social health, systemically how it affects different groups of people and ultimately it makes me really think about how we can combat that and how we can help aid and overall pay that forward as we evolve and go into our careers,” said Shafau.
And while medical schools are seeing more applications, the same cannot be said for a local nursing program.
Kirtland Community College in Crawford County says they have not seen an increase in the number of students interested in nursing.
They say it may be partially due to the pandemic highlighting just how stressful and demanding nursing can be at times.
Surgical tech students have also not been able to get as many hours as they normally would in operating rooms, with elective procedures put on hold.
“It’s a terrible pandemic, but it’s says to us there is a need for healthcare professionals, the demands, everybody is working overtime, everybody is working all these hours because there aren’t the professionals there, so to me that says there is still a demand for people in these fields,” said Vice President for Academic Services, Amy Fugate.
Kirtland says they’re hopeful surgical tech students can start getting more regular operating room hours after the first of the year.
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