The Podcast by KevinMD

"When I first heard about medical schools fast-tracking graduation for students and shifting young residents into high need areas to fight the pandemic of COVID-19, I thought of how panicked those students and residents must feel. Asking them to step in to fight a battle we don't know how to win, and envisioning them witnessing the suffering and death of multiple people due to lack of resources and a broken system is terrifying. Asking them to risk their own safety and that of their families due to a paucity of protective equipment is beyond the pale. My more experienced colleagues whisper to each other that we too are afraid of serving on the front lines, but inevitably someone says, 'I guess this is what we signed up for.' The truth is none of us signed up for this." Deborah Edberg is a family physician. She shares her story and discusses her KevinMD articles, "Words of courage for medical students and residents" (https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2020/03/words-of-courage-for-medical-students-and-residents.html) and "Stop calling health care workers heroes and do something to help them." (https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2020/05/stop-calling-health-care-workers-heroes-and-do-something-to-help-them.html)

"The USMLE has failed the medical education community, and subsequently, future patients, as medical students will undoubtedly have irreplaceable damage from this experience; however, like all tests, it is possible to learn from mistakes and improve. In these unprecedented times, we as students understand the need to be flexible, but in return, we ask not to be forgotten and left abandoned by the USMLE. Let us work together, find solutions, and move onward." Colin Quinn is a medical student. He shares his story and discusses his KevinMD article, "How the USMLE fails COVID-19." (https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2020/05/how-the-usmle-fails-covid-19.html)

"The COVID-19 pandemic has turned medical education upside-down. From exclusively virtual pre-clerkship courses, to delayed clerkships, to canceled graduation proceedings, there has been massive disruption. Now, after weeks of speculation, we've learned how the pandemic will be disrupting the 2020-2021 residency application cycle. The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) is now recommending that all residency interviews be conducted virtually. While this a wise recommendation, out of concern for public safety, I fear it will exacerbate long-standing problems in the residency application process and will have dire consequences for many applicants." Jordan Hughes is an emergency medicine resident. He shares his story and discusses his KevinMD article, "To the AAMC: Recommend an interview limit or else this year's residency match may be a disaster." (https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2020/05/to-the-aamc-recommend-an-interview-limit-or-else-this-years-residency-match-may-be-a-disaster.html)

"The reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic in the comprehensive psychiatric emergency program (CPEP) began insidiously, with an initial sense of unease. Patients are brought into CPEP when they pose a danger to themselves or others. Often they are brought by police, but occasionally they come on their own or with concerned family members. CPEP is a locked unit, separated via locked double doors that require a valid ID badge to pass. It is its own world, walled off from the rest of the hospital, and is a place where overwhelmed patients tell their stories and seek help." Ruchi Vikas is a psychiatry resident. She shares her story and discusses her KevinMD article, "Emergency psychiatry during COVID-19." (https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2020/05/emergency-psychiatry-during-covid-19.html)

"Over a period of about two years, our city experienced a very large influx of seniors. One nearby town grew by over five thousand people. This, in turn, created a surge of patients coming to the hospital. As most were older, they often had multiple medical conditions. They would almost always require more complex care. The whole system became overloaded because, once again, no one had thought to make extra resources available. In the emergency department, this translated into a genuine crisis. Though the actual number of patients we saw in a day stayed about the same, what did change was the type of patients we were seeing. More patients came in that were not mobile. Thus, many required stretchers. Until this time, having patients in the hallway was a rarity. Now, it became the norm. Our normal workload in the monitored area had been three or four patients per nurse. Suddenly, it was not unusual to have six to eight patients per nurse." "T. C. Randall" is an emergency room nurse and author of The View From The Wrong Side Of The Day: A Story About Nursing, PTSD And Other Shenanigans. (https://amzn.to/2TDggtu) He shares his story and discusses his KevinMD article, "An emergency room nurse diagnosed with PTSD." (https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2020/05/an-emergency-room-nurse-diagnosed-with-ptsd.html)

"As a physician anesthesiologist who has previously been on assignment for Doctors Without Borders in a resource-depleted region fraught with conflict, I'd like to say there's little I haven't seen. But now, after four weeks of staffing COVID intensive care units and emergency response teams throughout New York City, I struggle to distinguish between the exhaustion of a distant war-zone and the fatigue I see in state-of-the-art medical facilities. In some ways, my past experience treating war-wounded Syrian refugees mentally prepared me for my most recent journey where I dropped the comforts of life in California, booked a one-way ticket to the Big Apple, and secured emergency credentialing at multiple hospitals in the global epicenter of the virus outbreak. But in other ways, the campaign against COVID-19 is its own brand of horror, and I find myself worn down overseeing emergency intubations and debating the ethics of ventilator distribution, whether or not to initiate cardiopulmonary resuscitation, and how to help patients die with dignity when they are nearing end-of-life." Ajit Rai is an anesthesiologist and interventional pain physician and can be reached at his self-titled site, Ajit Rai MD. He shares his story and discusses his KevinMD articles, "Opening America: Should we really have to choose between economic revival and human life?" (https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2020/05/opening-america-should-we-really-have-to-choose-between-economic-revival-and-human-life.html) and "Young physicians belong on the battlefront." (https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2020/04/young-physicians-belong-on-the-battlefront.html)

Social media's leading physician voice, Kevin Pho, MD, shares the stories of the many who intersect with our health care system but are rarely heard from. Welcome to The Podcast by KevinMD.