OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE UTAH ACADEMY OF FAMILY PHYSICIANS

Pub. 6 2022 Issue 1

Medical Student Spotlight: Elizabeth Turner

This story appears in the
UAFP Journal Pub 6 2022 Issue 1

My name is Elizabeth Turner, and I am 30 years old. I am almost done with my first year of medical school at the Noorda College of Osteopathic Medicine in Provo, Utah. I never thought I would be where I am today.

I was born in Los Angeles, California, and raised near LA in Santa Clarita, where most of my family still lives. Speaking of family, I have five siblings, including an identical twin sister, Christine. Yes, we look super similar. Yes, I am the older twin. Yes, we can read each other’s minds. Just kidding, but we do have a lot in common, and I love being a twin; I have an automatic best friend, confidant, and supporter.

Christine and I were always helping our mom bake in the kitchen. Like most kids, we would lick the beater from a batch of chocolate chip cookies, but for us, it was never enough. We marveled at the process from beginning to end. The alchemy that turns butter, sugar, eggs, and flour into cookies and cakes never ceases to delight me. We both inherited our mother’s sweet tooth. To be honest, I have it worse than either of them. I’ve had a toxic love of chocolate cake ever since I can remember, and rolling out pie dough is my version of doing yoga. Dessert is in my DNA.

Family and friends who would taste my bakes would joke about how I should start a bakery. HelloFlour Bakery was born. One day in July 2014, I asked my sister to join me in taking our sweet obsession to another level. From the tiny kitchen of our college apartment, we created and sold treats ranging from brown butter pumpkin pies to elaborate floral wedding cakes. I treasure the thrill of setting down a golden apple pie or a fluffy layer cake on a table surrounded by friends and the spectacle of cutting into it. Dessert is always a centerpiece.

We quickly realized that baking for an income just wasn’t as magical as hobby baking, and running our bakery wasn’t suitable for pursuing our other ambition of attending graduate school. Christine is in her fourth year of optometry school and living in Huntington Beach, California. We still bake for fun and share photos of our bakes on Instagram. We like it better this way.

In junior high, high school, and college, I became obsessed with biology. Sounds typical for a medical student, right? But before the seventh grade, I was terrified of the human body. As a self-diagnosed hypochondriac, the thought of learning about Ebola and brain cancer almost crippled me — cancer seems to run in my family. But before long, I realized the more I learned the hows and whys of biology, the more empowered I felt. Demystifying my previous fears became my new goal.

Before I decided to attend medical school, my original plan was to become a junior high school biology teacher. At that point in life, I was married to my husband Levi and was attending Utah Valley University, where I got my undergraduate degree. I applied for the Biology Education program at UVU and was accepted. Yay! On my first day in the program, I knew it wasn’t for me. That night I told my husband I wanted out. Come again? “But you’ve only given it one day,” he said. It was one of those moments when you can’t explain why, but you just know.

After that, I’ll admit, I didn’t have a solid plan. I was working as a customer service manager for a mail-order pharmacy. I was teaching English to students in China. I was still baking cakes for weddings here and there. But with each side job, I missed biology.

One night, I found myself talking to my husband in our kitchen, washing dishes, when it clicked. I should go to medical school. Again, he was shocked. He wasn’t exactly dumbfounded — he knew how much I liked science – but I had literally zero experience in healthcare. But once I get a good idea in my head, I’m hard to dissuade. I am stubborn to a fault.

I knew the path was ambitious. I knew I had a lot of work to do to be application-ready. However, with my new sense of purpose, I made a U-turn, which led me to “Ann.”

“No! No! No!” Ann said while pointing at me. As I cautiously approached, I saw the panicked look in her eyes. I introduced myself as a hospice volunteer and asked if I could sit on the couch beside her. “No!” continued to be her reply. Ann’s daughter told me not to take her mother’s words personally due to her frontal-lobe dementia. “Yes” and “no” were the full extent of her vocabulary those days. Determined to gain her trust, I played the piano, drew in connect-the-dot books, and cooked her lunches week after week. I’ll never forget the day I was “in.” I asked if I could take her hand as she apprehensively stared at the stairs in front of her. “Yes!” Such a simple word, yet it was music to my ears.

Driving home that day, I realized a couple of things. First, there is nothing more gratifying than comforting fellow humans in their most vulnerable moments. Second, I had chosen the right path. Becoming a doctor is my life’s calling.

Applying to Noorda was a no-brainer. It is close to my current home in Lehi, Utah, where I live with my husband and our two King Charles Cavalier dogs, Rupert and Daphne. I adore them. From the convenience of location to the excitement of being a torchbearer at a new and innovative school, the breadth of Noorda’s appeal meant that I would be set up for a successful medical career. I believe the Noorda College of Osteopathic Medicine was founded on the idea that medical education does not have to be torturous. Rather, it should be suitable for the modern student. The mother with a family. The athlete who runs professionally. The dessert person obsessed with baking brioche.  

Although it is still early in my medical school career, I am highly considering family medicine. When I ask myself, “what do I want to accomplish as a physician?” I think of being someone who provides the foundation for people to live their healthiest lives. In French cooking, there are four “mother sauces.” If you master the mother sauces, you can make nearly anything. I suspect family medicine would be like the mother recipe in healthcare. Patients in all stages of life — exciting or scary — would come to rely on and trust in me again and again.