Behind the White Coat

"This crisis is doing much to reveal the nature of people. I am seeing doctors and nurses volunteering for extra duty at the hospital, putting in extra hours, seeing extra children and committed to helping the community. We have a whole team of people who are working with the youth homeless shelter to find hotel rooms to quarantine homeless kids who are sick and keep them away from the shelters. Even more than people at the hospital, a group of neighbors came over asking how they could feed kids whose families were sick, a lawyer called and offered to do free wills and healthcare power of attorney documents for the hospital workers, and a group of doctors in the hospital called and volunteered to take a ten percent pay cut to be donated to all the furloughed workers.

A local church called and asked how they could minister to or comfort frontline healthcare workers at the Hospital. Except for some of the politicians, this has brought out the heart in people far more than I imagined in just the first couple of weeks. The shadows loom large, but I have had a front row seat on the compassion that exploded the minute people stepped away from the distractions and saw how people were hurting. So far, it has been a beautiful show in the midst of crisis."

"Confused. Uncertain. My initial reaction upon hearing that the threat of the virus would lead to my removal from clinical education. Grateful. Calm. My subsequent feelings in realizing I'd have the time I needed to rest, rejuvenate, slow down and complete my high work load. Frustrated. Angry. My response when I realized there would be injunction upon injunction, further restricting my education. Concerned. Humbled. My thoughts as I realized this virus has touched all without infecting the masses. Finances, Sanity, Security, Safety and Well-being all impacted.

This time has shown me much about my heart and response to crisis. My opinion of Covid-19 has been evolving since first hearing of it. It has shown me my responsibility to channel my emotions, look outside of self, and consider the impact of the population. I've seen my selfishness of full display and I've seen how living in the microcosm of medical education is a danger to the public. Although being a medical student is time consumptive, I am always and forever a global citizen. It is my HUMAN duty to care and not make like of a crisis. I am grateful for the lessons in quarantine and I am humbled by the education outside of the books.

It is my prayer that all remain safe and healthy, that through this we become better and more compassionate towards our fellow brothers and sisters in this walk of life."

"Growing up, it was instilled in me that much of life's joy comes from compassion and responsibility. These values are empowering, perhaps transcendental. These are the qualities I want to infuse into my everyday. They are "how" I want to interact with the world. The "what" of our lives as 3rd and 4th year medical students has dramatically changed in the past two weeks: no rotations, no patient interaction, and now we find ourselves sitting at home on the sidelines.​

While our formal education is mostly at a stand-still our "how" need not be abandoned. As future physician-healers we have ample opportunities to support the health of our communities during this trying time. As Osteopaths we know that good health requires food security, job security, stable housing, and healthy relationships. The needs are great around us. Friends are losing jobs, grandma is in isolation indefinitely, stress and anxiety rampant, misinformation abundant. This time will serve as a testament of our values. We must be creative, adaptive, and decisive. If we are guided by our "how" during this pandemic we will be better doctors because of COVID-19."

"My dad, a family physician, was exposed to COVID-19 while working in his office. I knew that he was high risk as a physician and since he’s over 60 years old, but I still wasn’t expecting him to be exposed. I found out right before coming back to Athens and had to cope with the fear of his potential illness while also starting to quarantine and preparing to begin school online.

I was terrified and felt trapped in my 4 walls yet also overstimulated by news and statistics at the same time. I was in the midst of a major life event with innumerable uncertainties and concerns. Will my dad test positive? Will he pass this along to my immunocompromised mom? Will I be able to start rotations on time? Can I still take boards? Will I be able to emotionally and mentally cope with not seeing my friends or family for the foreseeable future?

Thankfully, he tested negative. For now. The fear of his illness has temporarily been relieved. But I wonder every day whether he’s been exposed or not. Whether by a patient, at the gas station, in the grocery store, wherever. This disease is a bigger mountain than any of us could have imagined, and we’re still on the incline.

I desperately want to be able to put my medical knowledge to use and help on the front lines. For now, I stay home and (virtually) hold my family a little tighter, remind my friends to continue social distancing, and work hard, knowing that eventually, I will be able to help my medical brothers and sisters to educate, treat, and protect the public."

"Dear students, my future colleagues and peers,

This is a tumultuous time. Many of us have worries about our friends, our families, our patients and ourselves. Yet, I send you this message to offer a sense of calm amongst the chaos. By choosing to attend HCOM, a school in transition, working to train future physicians differently in a newly minted curriculum, you consciously accepted that things may not go as planned…but even I did not anticipate a public health crisis would impact our path. Please accept the remainder of this semester is not going to be what you and I expected. And that is okay. Despite all the uncertainty and fear that is around us, remain focused. Remember the patients you will directly care for someday soon. You will succeed. You will become physicians. Applying yourself to your studies is a solace. You have learned how to be an osteopathic medical student; this is something you can do, and something in which you excel. The modalities for teaching and learning may shift a bit, but the goal is the same. Be kind to yourself. Be kind to each other. Show patience and grace when circumstances shift and change. Just as I cannot predict the course for the next patient I may see, I can’t tell you what tomorrow will bring. I just know that we are all on the same journey.

With the upmost respect and gratitude,"

"I was on my Emergency Medicine rotation when they called us off of rotations. Each day and night I went in, those working would talk about how afraid they were of the unknown. Would there be enough beds? Would they have enough ventilators? What happens to my kids when I get it? We only have two negative pressure rooms in the ED, what are we going to do? How can I intubate a patient when I don’t have the PPE I need? It’s scary to think that so many of us are living our everyday lives while these healthcare professionals are fighting this pandemic without the proper equipment they need. It made me reflect on what it means to be a healthcare professional and how broken the system can be."