Many medical students are inspired to pursue medicine by a desire to help patients, which can involve advocating to improve health care systems and policies. But more formal methods of advocacy—working for causes either as an individual or as a leader of a group—can be tricky to navigate.
It can be tough, for example, to know when and how to speak out on topics that matter to you, other medical students, practicing physicians and your patients. The benefits of advocacy, though, can be manifold. They include practical considerations such as making professional connections and honing your CV for residency Match, and loftier aims such as shaping the future state of medicine and setting the record straight on health topics where misinformation proliferates.
The barrier to entry is low, say AMA members who have taken on advocacy and leadership roles to move medicine forward.
“Showing up is the most important thing that you can do in your advocacy career,” said Hans C. Arora, MD, PhD, a pediatric urologist in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, who has served in multiple advocacy roles with the AMA over the years and now sits on the AMPAC Board of Directors.
“You show up every day for your patients in the office, or in the operating room, or in the hospital, but we need to show up every day for them on Capitol Hill, writing letters to our representatives, speaking our mind, and showing up at the AMA House of Delegates and being members. These are all parts of showing up, and it's one of the most critical things to be an advocate, is to just be there.”
Dr. Arora spoke as part of an AMA Advocacy in Action Workshop for medical students, a virtual event that tackled topics such as how to craft a powerful social media post and talk about physician advocacy in personal statements for residency applications. The speakers agreed: let your passion drive your advocacy, remember who you are representing and keep your eyes on the prize of practicing medicine.
“Advocacy doesn't just live in policy rooms,” said Joshua Hartley, the AMA Government Relations Advocacy Fellow for 2025–2026. “It can open doors, strengthen relationships, strengthen your leadership skills and help define your role as a physician.”
Find your passion, and advocacy will follow
In the same way that physicians can feel “called” to a specialty, passion for a topic will drive advocacy, the experts said. Reilly Bealer, MD, is an ob-gyn resident in North Carolina who chairs the AMA Resident and Fellow Section Governing Council.
Dr. Bealer, who was formerly chair of the AMA Medical Student Section Governing Council, said her experience with advocacy came after years of struggling with low income and housing insecurity. Working long hours, having trouble getting transportation and not being able to take time off for appointments and to fill prescriptions, she gained an intimate understanding of the difficulties many face to access medical care.
“It really inspired me to be able to advocate for patients who were going through similar situations,” Dr. Bealer said, wanting to become “a representative and a voice to help lift up and empower those patients to ask for what they needed.”
When she started medical school, “you could talk about research, but advocacy is more of a taboo topic,” Dr. Bealer said. But she decided to feature her advocacy prominently in her residency-application personal statements, which she said led to interviews where programs wanted to hear more about her work in those spaces. Ultimately, she said, even if it hurt her chances with a program, it would have been worth it to share.
“This is something I'm really passionate about, and if I want to go to a program and they don't support the advocacy that I'm doing, then that's not the right program for me,” she said.
For medical students looking to turn their passions into health policy, the AMA offers the chance to connect with nearly 53,000 AMA student members, get hands-on experience advocating for change at the state and federal levels through trainings, meetings and events in Washington, D.C.—and online.
Represent when you can—and do it fairly
Advocacy doesn’t require traveling to Washington to lobby members of Congress about big topics. It can be as simple as drafting a letter to your senator or posting on Instagram a picture of you getting a flu vaccine.
There are also a multitude of ways to get involved with the AMA. Medical students are uniquely positioned to become leaders—and the AMA can help. With hundreds of leadership opportunities, medical students can build their skills and distinguish themselves as resident candidates.
“Folks who care and folks who show up and jump in, that's the best way to do it,” said Anna Heffron, MD, PhD, a fourth-year emergency medicine resident who is speaker of the AMA Resident and Fellow Section. “If you want to join a committee, if you have a resolution you care about, if someone else is bringing forward a resolution and you want to help with it, just jump in. I can't think of a better way to do it than that.”
If you do take on a leadership role, though, remember who you are representing.
As a leader, Dr. Arora said, “I always have to keep in mind, when I get up at the mic, people are always going to look at me as representing my specialty society, and so sometimes I've had to pull back. And there are times I've had to push for things that personally I may not agree with quite as much as other things or feel as strongly [about] as other things—but that's the charge of the people who send you. Those are the people who elected you, and that's important.”
The AMA Medical Student Leadership Learning Series offers practical education to help medical students lead effectively. These 20-minute, interactive modules offer advice, realistic scenarios and printable resources to help medical students become skilled in core competencies of leadership. This series is an AMA members-only resource.
Don’t lose focus on what matters
Amid changes coming at breakneck pace—in medical school as students grow in their knowledge, and in society, as technology advances—advocacy should not only work for those you’re trying to help, but also for you.
“This work can be difficult, and there are times when you need to step back from it,” Dr. Heffron said.
It’s also important to remember your ultimate goal as a medical student is to become a practicing physician. Take on causes that interest and inspire you, but only what you can manage without shortchanging your medical career.
“It's easy to get lost in all of the incredible opportunities you have in advocacy, but it's important to make sure that you remember your day job, for lack of a better word,” Dr. Arora said, adding that he’s seen passionate medical student advocates neglect their studies and fail to find a residency Match. “Remember your priorities. Remember why you're here in the first place, and you'll do amazing things.”
Visit AMA Advocacy in Action to find out what’s at stake in the advocacy priorities the AMA is actively working on. And stay on the political pulse of the key national and state issues that affect patients and physicians with exclusive coverage in the "AMA Advocacy Update" newsletter. Subscribe today.
