Are Medical Students in Love?
Novel study shows no matter their relationship status, medical students are not alone.
A budding dermatologist and team learned that medical students need not blush when it comes to their romantic relationships – or lack thereof – in a first-of-its-kind study conducted to answer the burning question of what’s normal when it comes to love and dating during medical school.
Third-year University of Miami Miller School of Medicine student Juwon Lee found that, despite the impression on social media that relationships are the norm, anything goes when it comes to medical students’ love lives. Many are in a relationship. Many are not in a relationship. And many have never been in a relationship.
“There’s no right answer to what you should be doing in your 20s and 30s or what everyone else is doing,” Lee said. “Everyone’s life is dynamic, and everyone has a different pace of life. Social pressure can be a lot, but you only see the highlights of people’s lives on social media. No matter what stage of life you’re in, there’s a good amount of people in your position.”
The State of Medical School Student Relationships
More specifically, the study found that 67 percent of medical students are currently in a relationship, 33 percent are single and 9 percent have never been in a relationship. Of those not currently in a relationship, 72 percent are actively seeking one, primarily through dating apps, friends and social outings, and are frustrated.
Those not seeking relationships cited prioritizing their careers, feeling that it isn’t the right time and seeing no good options as top reasons. In all, 326 students representing all class years from the Miller School and Tulane University School of Medicine participated, with a response rate of 21 percent.
Where do medical students find love? Surprisingly to many, most find relationships outside of school. Sixty percent reported a partner outside of medicine, 27 percent with another medical student, 3 percent with a resident and 11 percent with partners in other medical professions. This is contrary to what many older physicians – and fans of “Grey’s Anatomy” – think, which is that medical students commonly date other students or people in the field. Lee attributes this branching out to the ease of using FaceTime and social media to connect with people outside of work, as well as students delaying medical school until they are older.
What do Medical Students Want in a Relationship?
The study also examined relationship priorities and analyzed outcomes to discern gender differences. The most common attribute medical students seek in a relationship is character/personality, followed by how much their partner cares for and loves them and then physical attraction. Financial potential was the least important of seven factors. Both men and women feel highly supported by their partners in their medical education, while men report that they contribute more financially to their relationships and women less.
As the interpersonal domain chair for the school’s Wellness Advisory Council, Lee conceived the idea for the study. She appreciated that love and relationships are integral to the wellness of medical students. Motivated by the lack of published data on romantic relationships in medical school, Lee wanted to provide reliable information that could guide and support student wellness and replace the false impressions gleaned from social media posts and standalone anecdotes.
After securing survey approval from the school’s institutional review board, Lee led the research, with help from Tulane medical student Mackensie Banchik, Miller School medical students Lynn Leveille and Karen Lee and project advisors Hilit Mechaber, M.D., associate professor of medical education and senior associate dean for student affairs at the Miller School, and Marisa Echenique, Psy.D., assistant professor of clinical psychology and director of student services and wellness at the Miller School.
The group ultimately plans to expand the study to include additional medical schools and publish a paper on the findings. Meantime, they have presented their findings at two conferences, the 2024 AAMC GSA-CiM-OSR National Meeting in San Francisco in April and Learn Serve Lead 2024: The AAMC Annual Meeting in Atlanta in November. Lee says it is only natural that she is studying relationships, even though she plans to practice dermatology. When she immigrated from South Korea to Los Angeles at age 9, she didn’t speak fluent English.
“I became very aware of relationships around me and paid more attention as I assimilated to a new culture, because I had that language barrier,” said Lee, 25, herself in a long-distance relationship with someone outside the medical field. “I wanted to do this study because I really value physician-to-patient relationships. Rapport is such an important part of our role as physicians.”
Tags: Department of Medical Education, Dr. Hilit Mechaber, Dr. Marisa Echenique, medical education, medical students, student research