Is it just me, or does anyone else think that they’ll become a MUCH better Doc with this generation than they could have become with their own? Between the educational and technology advances (which a STAY geeked out about) and the fact that this generation is IMHO, FAR more openminded when it comes to issuse of race, gender, and sexual orientation than mine EVER was , I think I’ll continue to enjoy attending classes with folks in the same age range as my kid!!! 
After 60 views and no response, I guess it is “just me”, ROTFL!!!
Not just you 
Well, I’m not sure the generation makes that much difference, but I think the style of medical education certainly may. When I initially was a premed major in college and worked part time at a university medical center, their medical school was very competitive, grading on a curve and failing the lowest grades in any class (even if above 80%), so the students were sabotaging each other at every opportunity. It is part of what turned me off of going to med school at that time. I much prefer a collaborative learning environment, which seemed to be fostered at most of the institutions I interviewed at in 2009, so that has changed quite a bit. Also an emphasis in both MD and DO schools on holistic approach to health care. So yes, probably we will be better doctors for that change.
Kate
Just read this today for the first time…I am not able to speak from an informed position about the medical education aspect, but I do feel qualified to weigh in on this generation of young people, having just spent the better part of the last four years with them as a classmate in her fifties pursuing a bachelors. I share the view that they are more openminded and accepting in general, and that this will have positive implications for med students [and ultimately, patients]. Many are adept at identifying and calling out patriarchal and discriminatory words and actions that would have gone unchallenged thirty years ago when I first began my pursuit of a medical education. I can truly say, with the utmost humility, that I have learned as much from them as they have learned from me these past few years. They have expanded my horizons in ways I did not know were possible. This generation has brought me so much joy and fulfillment that I am actually considering academic medicine just so I can stay around them more!!
This conversation is quite interesting. I have been listening a lot to the Medical School HQ podcast and one of his major points is to change student behavior from the cut-throat survival mode and use collaboration as the success tool. It seems almost, and I am not sure if this is the correct term, hypocritical for future doctors to hurt one another so that they can take an oath that promises that they will help their fellow man. I wonder what the suicide rate is at medical schools that change to the collaborative team environment instead of a traditional approach. It just doesn’t seem like you would produce empathetic physicians if they are only programmed to find ways to stab each other in the back.