Behind The White Coat: The Financial Pressures Residents and Fellows Are Really Facing

What’s it really like to train in medicine today? Internal medicine-pediatrics physicians Michael Jerkins, MD, M.Ed and Ned Palmer, MD, MPH dive into the results of the Panacea Financial 2025 Annual Residents and Fellows Survey, which captured the voices of nearly 500 medical trainees across the country. The findings? Over half of respondents reported feeling extremely financially stressed—and the stories behind that number paint a deeper picture of the challenges facing today’s doctors-in-training. 

From rising living costs and ballooning student debt to the emotional weight of working long hours while living paycheck to paycheck, Drs. Jerkins and Palmer explore the toll this financial pressure is taking on the future of medicine. They unpack why student loan stress jumped 26% in just one year, what it means when 1 in 3 trainees wouldn’t choose medicine again, and how instability is hitting certain specialties the hardest. 

What can we learn from the doctors who are still in the thick of it? How does financial stress impact patient care and what could a better training system actually look like? With data, personal insights, and a dose of realism, this episode is a candid look at what’s working, what’s broken, and why meaningful reform matters now more than ever. Tune in to hear what today’s residents and fellows really want you to know.