Table 4.

Quotes Representing Interviewee Perceptions, Barriers, and Resources

Variable	Representative quotations
Perceptions of the medical field
Lacks diversity	“We are minorities in a field that is predominantly White male.” “…hard to not find someone who looks like you in an environment that’s already stressful. Even in high school, being the only student of color in an AP class [was hard].”
It is service/requires sacrifice	“They find it worthwhile to spend a huge part of their lives doing that.” “Someone really willing to serve others.” “You have to sacrifice a lot and you have to go through a lot.”
Medical professionals are lifelong learners	“Life revolves around school.” “They would have to be knowledgeable and wanting to learn....”
Medical professionals are part of a team	“They can work together and they each have a part in [administering care].”
Medical professionals require strong character (eg, maturity, discipline, hard work)	“…not only caring for others, but knowing when to take care of yourself.” “You have to be all in, or not in at all.” “You can’t treat patients like cases on the chart. You have to view them as people.” “If you’re doing it for yourself…it’s going to be terrible. It’s, like, not about you, it’s really about the higher purpose.”
Barriers to pursuing a career in medicine
Lack of inclusivity	“Oh, it’s a male-dominated field.” “Women students are treated way less fairly than male students.” “[it feels like] you can’t get into this club.”
Competitive field/performance metrics	“…their test scores mean they're gonna get [into] a med school or not.” “…only high-IQ people [can become medical professionals].”
Lack of a community or network	“People who [are] from my community aren't trying…to go into medicine.” “Finding good mentors is also difficult if you don't have a lot of people that are like-minded.” “Sometimes you think you’re alone in that and you’re struggling….Being like, able to like be in a group of people…[and know] that we all aspire to help people is a great thing because it’s hard to find.”
Financial burden	“Our tuition is stupidly expensive.” “Med school costs a lot of money…it’s stressful not only thinking about academics, but thinking about loans and ways to pay school off in the future.”
Family planning/fear of loss of quality of life	“…missing out on what other people your age are doing.” “Maybe you started off with, like, a passion helping others, and then all of this happened, and now you're just doing it like it's a routine.”
Lack of help navigating the process	“I'm very interested in going to med school, but I don't really know much about it, and I don't really have the resources to know about it.” “Being a first-gen student and not having anyone, like friends or family wise, that's a doctor, you know, it's like, oh, I don't know what to do.”
Personal and mental health/stress	“It's a grind every day, and some days are really hard, and you just kind of gotta push through it.” “…stress and anxiety because while it is something you really want to do, like so much…and it being a hard thing to accomplish can be a source of stress and anxiety, and that can be really hindering if not handled well.”
Time commitment	“Oh my goodness! Am I going to be like this after, like, 15 years of school?”
Self-doubt/lack of confidence	“You need to be able to advocate for yourself.” “First impression [of a medical professional] would be scary, intimidating.”
Resources that help overcome barriers
Mentorship/role models	“Real life experience…with our mentors, being able to get a fresh view on what medical school looks like [and] about how their application process happened [has helped] and the realization that, no, you don’t have to be the perfect student.” “When my mom came to the US, I saw her able to balance being a mother, nurse, being in school….Seeing her do that makes me think I can do it too.” “A little shadowing day [would have helped].”
Presentations about the application process	“PowerPoint presentations on financial assistance helped me a lot.” “I like the PowerPoints ‘cause we get to keep those….Those are great permanent resources….” “I would have really liked to know more about the admissions process…how students are selected…not just the perspective of [the] people who are applying but rather the admissions officers say how selection is done.”
Diverse panels of physicians and trainees	“We get to learn from the people who have…experience.” “Having the different people that are in, like, medical school or are doctors now sharing their route to medical school, showing that, like, everyone doesn’t have the same route and it can take different amounts of time to do that, so like don’t be scared if it’s taking you longer to get there.”
Strategies to maintain wellness and responsibilities	“Overcoming adversity, I wanted to hear…how you deal with that.” “It would also be nice to know how they manage their time once they [medical students] get into medical school.”
Discussions of failures faced by medical professionals	“I like learning from other people's mistakes…[so that I can] avoid that and work hard and miss that. It's easier for me.” “I also kind of like to hear about failures too because I feel like a lot of people—including myself—sometimes feel like a failure.” “Anything dealing with, like, failure and how they overcome that—not that we need a counseling session.”
Clinical simulations/case studies	“Being in a high-stress situation…kinda knowing…what the environment is like and how to actually work under that condition [helped].” “Case studies are like really helpful, like taking you like in the position of what physicians go through, like what their thought process is [while] being faced with these different problems.”