Young doctors are quickly regarded as “too soft” when they talk about working hours, mental health, or bureaucracy. An expert defends Gen Z against the accusation, seeing a better future in them.
Is Gen Z not made for medicine? Frantz M. Berthaud, Senior Vice President at the University Medical Center of El Paso, contradicts an accusation in a commentary for the industry medium STAT that many young people know: Gen Z is too sensitive, too focused on mental health, and not tough enough for the job.
His counter-question to the critical voices: What if it is not the young doctors who are the problem, but the working conditions that are being sold to them as the norm?
Berthaud writes essentially: Gen Z does not refuse to work in medicine. They refuse the conditions that have been tied to that work. Young doctors want the system to work for everyone just as it is expected of them to work for that system.
What bothers young doctors according to the expert specifically? It’s not about avoiding responsibility. It’s about questions like:
- Why do doctors spend so much time with forms instead of with patients?
- Why is exhaustion still seen as a sign of commitment?
- Why are poor duty schedules often defended as “that’s always been the case”?
In doing so, Gen Z hits a sore spot. Because when young people don’t just go along with things, bosses need to explain why a broken system should remain broken – says the expert Berthaud.