MedEx Day 5 - July 5, 2021

Today was the 5th day of MedEx Tier 3, the start of the 2nd week. To begin today, Caroline Loftus and the other interns gave a presentation regarding business etiquette, professional development, and their stories/ lives. I greatly enjoyed the review of how to act in a professional business setting and a lot of the reminders that were shared about the types of conversations to have, posture reminders, and how to interview. My favorite part of this presentation was learning about our interns/ program advisors since each and every one of them has a very unique and interesting background/ story. I felt that these presentation(s) really helped to develop my competency of social skills. I learned more about the people around me/ their stories and why they want to do medicine, as well as how to be professional.

Afterwards, Dr. Carmela Epright from Furman came to speak to Tier III about medical ethics. The most interesting part of Dr. Epright's lecture was her discussion of how her ethics team decided to distribute the remdesivir medication courses that were received at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. She discussed how they used something called a SOFA score (Systemic organ function assessment) to narrow down the possible list of candidates for the drug course and then used a lottery, despite other suggestions (mostly b/c of practicality/ feasibility). The most interesting point of this discussion was that some of the people who didn't receive the Remdesivir died of COVID-19. It was a chilling reminder of the power and responsibility that comes with being a healthcare provider. Another fact that she shared that added to this reminder was the fact that in SC a physician can be required by law to stay behind during a natural disaster, as a result of 6 physicians staying behind during 2005 in New Orleans when Katrina occurred. Practicing medicine, especially as a physician but also in any field of medicine, is not just a job. Physicians are held to a higher standard, are asked to do more for the community, are expected to put the community/ patients in front of their own families/ priorities at times, and they provide a service/ need to the community(ies) that they serve.

The last memory that I want to share from Dr. Epright's lecture was her discussion about values/ how a provider needs to be culturally competent and understand the values of the patient/ not just use the provider's own values as a basis of understanding. She illustrated this with an example of a neurosurgeon friend who wanted to split the corpus callosum of a little girl who was having uncontrollable epileptic spells; however, the patient's parents did not approve since their religion said splitting the skull meant losing one's soul. This was a wonderful reminder and lesson that I will encounter patients with different religions, values, morals, etc. from me. I MUST be culturally competent and understanding of their positions in order to treat them as a human, with dignity, and as a healthcare provider.

The rest of the day consisted of being assigned a group research project about hospital-induced PTSD and having time to research this topic. I enjoyed improving my teamwork skills and getting to step up and try to lead my group/ delegate tasks to everyone. During this time, I learned a great deal about PTSD/ realized that it isn't just caused by traumatic events in one's life. This research time also improved my ability to search for medical literature that is pertinent to the topic at-hand, enhancing my scientific inquiry ability. Lastly, Sarah Knowles came and spoke about our shadowing placements for the weeks ahead, and Tier III had time to reflect on the past week/ discuss about test anxiety and stress.