Lawrence Smith, former dean of medical education at New York's Mount Sinai and new dean of the Hofstra University School of Medicine (scheduled to open on Long Island in 2010), says that nontraditional students are often a challenge to medical educators. They're more self-confident, he says. They're more conscious of what they want to do with their time. They're less willing to just suck it up and go through the rote aspects of medical training. They are the ones you see in the dean's office saying, `Don't inflict this horrible teacher on me.'
At the same time, they bring an integrative, adult vision of the world to medicine, Smith adds. They excel in the clinical setting. They ask smart questions. They challenge assumptions. They ask `why?' more than younger students. They're more comfortable dealing with people. I'm not sure they necessarily make better doctors, but I think the class is definitely enhanced by their presence.
Hahahaha. Depending on personality, I can definitely see some profs/administrators/attendings finding older students a little peskier to deal with. Even in my post-bacc time, I was far more likely to question an asserted truth claim, not to be a pain, but just b/c no explanation was offered.
