Objective: It was aimed to evaluate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the violence against healthcare professionals during the pandemic on the motivation and career plans of first-year and sixth-year medical students and physicians. Methods: This cross-sectional survey was conducted at Marmara University School of Medicine and Gazi University School of Medicine. All first-year students of medical faculty, interns and physicians were asked to complete an online questionnaire, created by SurveyMonkey, which has 31 questions and consists of demographic, open-ended, multiple choices, Likert scale questions. Results: Two hundred twenty-eight first-year, 136 sixth-year students and 112 physicians (476 in total) participated in the study. Nearly half of the interns (44.6%) and physicians (51.4%) stated that the COVID-19 pandemic has negatively affected their career plans. The interns (54.3%) stated that they did not gain enough experience during the pandemic period and therefore have felt inadequate, and they declared that their self-confidence would be higher if they have taken a more active role in the hospital (68.7%). Of all participants, 55.3% thought that violence against healthcare professionals has increased during the pandemic period, and their motivation was reduced due to violence (86.8%). Despite the increased violence, 63.2% of the participants stated that they did not want to leave their profession. However, in their explanations about their career planning, the participants mostly indicated their plans on working abroad. Participants also stated that their loss of motivation was due to the attitudes of healthcare professionals related with their profession (40.5%) as well as the attitudes of patients and their relatives (70.7%) during the COVID-19 period. Conclusion: The COVID-19 pandemic and the violence that has escalated during the pandemic has adversely affected the career plans and motivations of physicians and students.