Dawn Zuidgeest-Craft to graduate medical school and begin residency at 72
Updated
Updated · The Washington Post · May 10
Dawn Zuidgeest-Craft to graduate medical school and begin residency at 72
5 articles · Updated · The Washington Post · May 10
The former nurse practitioner of four decades, who raised four children, is due to start a three-year residency in July.
Her graduation marks the fulfilment of a lifelong ambition first sparked at age 7, when she received a microscope while recovering at home from mononucleosis.
Her mother had predicted she would become a doctor, and Zuidgeest-Craft's path now culminates in a late-career transition from advanced nursing to physician training.
After 40 years as a nurse, what gap in patient care drove a 72-year-old to become a doctor?
How will demanding residencies adapt as more career-changers in their 70s enter medicine?
Can a doctor's life experience be more valuable to patients than a younger peer's cutting-edge training?