“I feel like I’m in a limbo in my medical training. My medical training hit pause. I was expected to go to Brigham and Women’s in the coming week to do my clinical capstone rotation, which is a rotation that all medical students do before graduating. It basically gears us to become interns. I unfortunately will not have that experience and training, and in its place will be a virtual class. So it seems like I’m at this state in my training where I feel as though I can do a lot, but I’m not allowed to yet. And that’s very frustrating, because I feel like a sitting duck at home. But I do try to help as much as I can remotely, especially with the education component of the medical student COVID-19 response team.

It’s also been very unsettling for a lot of my classmates. Some have given the perspective that early graduation is a scary thing to do. It is scary to be called to do something and be put in such an unstable health care system right now. Some people have wondered whether we will be given PPE (personal protective equipment) if called to work in the hospital. They wonder, will this be truly optional if it comes to it. Some classmates have already been upset that we didn’t have a Match day celebration. We’re not going to have a graduation. And now we’re not going to even have time off in between medical school and intern year, which is going to be a very, very hard year. And you’re asking us to come in earlier, 1-2 months early. And it’s not even part of our residency training. We still have to do the full year after that.

I personally feel very eager to help out and be on the front lines, because I’ve been doing the best I can to stay sane. Keep moving. Go outside when I can. Social distance as well, obviously. But it’s hard. And I don’t know what’s going to happen. But this is an option that they’re currently exploring. So, only time will tell.”