Med Student Coping with The Coronavirus Pandemic
The following article was featured in the June 2020 edition of The Campus.
By Kim Keblish
The coronavirus has upended medical education for recently graduated and current students. Med students in their last years are concerned about finishing their clinicals or are wondering if classes will be affected in the coming semesters.
One such example is Guneet Kaur, 24, she is in her second to last year of medical school at NYIT College of Osteopathic Medicine; And one of her biggest concerns is the ability to take her Step 2 USMLE (the United States Medical Licensing Examination). She said, "In order to graduate and for residency programs to accept you, you have to take that test and pass it before September." Students are worried about the availability of testing seats during the summer if dates to take STEP 2 are canceled, according to Kaur, "a lot of students take it in May, June. July. The May dates have already been canceled."
Another way medical school students have been affected is by early graduation. Like many med schools at this time, celebrations had to take place online. The inaugural Sophie Davis CUNY School of Medicine Class of 2020 class celebrated a 100 percent match to residency programs over Zoom.
Ugochukwu Apara, 24, a 2020 CUNY School of Medicine early graduate matched with a residency program in internal medicine at Weill Cornell Medical Center. Waiting to hear back about the start date for residency, Akpara stressed an alternate way med students have been able to work or volunteer without being in immediate danger to coronavirus through telemedicine. Akpara has opted to help in this way.
One of the biggest reasons she decided against in-person response was because of the risk of infection posed on her family. "I live at home right now with my parents so one of my biggest stipulations was that I needed housing. One of the worst things would be to bring it home. Maybe I signed up for this but my whole family didn't to be exposed to COVID," she said.
In the case of Helena Kennedy, 26, an early med school graduate at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, she was guaranteed dorm housing, but that left other factors for her to consider when debating to enter her residency program early. "It is a time were people working have a high likelihood of burnout or developing things like PTSD," she said. Early healthcare workers must consider the negative implications of mental health and a long-term career. Kennedy continued, "To be honest I am nervous about all of this I haven't come to peace with all of this, but for me what pushed me into the hospital as I thought this was how I could help best."
Kennedy just entered her residency program at Bellevue Hospital, she left some parting words, "And any decision anyone made, whether to graduate early, start working, or stay home with family and find other ways to volunteer are always grounded in a good place. And they are generally motivated by wanting to help but also considering different factors, I think that all of those decisions were good decisions and admirable none the less.
