CMA’s Boot Camp Gives Hope to Future Medical Students

July 9, 2026

By Grace Chaffins 

In the months leading up to the start of my first year of medical school, I felt fear creeping in. It wasn’t a fear of the hard work that lay ahead, or even a fear of failure. Rather, it was the fear that I would one day lose sight of my reason for going into medicine – that somewhere along the journey, it would become just another job reduced to checklists and mindless tasks. Much of this fear came from my experience working in environments where I witnessed burnout and cynicism among physicians, and where some of those doctors even discouraged me from pursuing a medical degree. I worried that the sense of purpose that first drew me toward medicine would slowly be worn down by the routine and pressure of everyday life.  

Those fears were dispelled at the 2026 Medical Student and Resident Boot Camp and my experience during that week showed me that fear does not have to define my path. I discovered that the practice of medicine, when viewed through the lens of faith, is not reduced to cynicism, nor shaped by conformity to societal views on medicine, but instead should truly be lived as a vocation. 

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