Mariam: Can you tell me about your experience with the impact of COVID-19 on your personal life?
Dr. Hawa: This year was as one may say a “momentous year” for me, I graduated from medical school and was to find out what residency program I would spend the next 3 years of my life training at. The timing of COVID-19, really created barriers in celebrating these big moments in my life. Instead of having a typical “Match Day Celebration” or graduation where I could dress up and create memories with my family and friends, I celebrated these events over Zoom.
I also had to move to a completely new state unfamiliar to me, during this time. And the limitations on social gatherings, made it difficult to connect with my colleagues, and new people in typical social spaces. Despite all this, my colleagues and I have had Zoom Happy Hours to socialize prior to residency, and also have had small group outings to the beach, and restaurants with outdoor seating. COVID can make it easy to feel lonely.
Mariam: What are the different levels of schooling that need to be completed before becoming a Physician. How did COVID-19 alter your last year of schooling before becoming a Physician?
Dr. Hawa: To become a physician, you need a High School Diploma/GED, Bachelor’s Degree (about 4-years in college) and a Doctorate of Medicine (MD) or Doctorate of Osteopathic Medicine (DO), which takes an additional 4-years of post-college training. Finally, depending on your speciality, one does an additional 3- 7 years of training (called residency) at a hospital where they get hands-on, in the field training. I am doing my residency in Pediatrics which is a 3-year training at Brown University’s affiliated hospitals (Rhode Island Hospital, Women & Infants Hospital).
COVID-19 did not alter much for me in my last year, as I intentionally finished all my graduation requirements in March (with hopes to take a long vacation before residency training). Many 4th year medical students do this. But for others in my class, who still needed to do rotations, they were pulled out of the hospital and did online course work instead. This meant some of them missed out on clinical experiences that may have been useful prior to the start of residency.
Mariam: Has there been any changes in procedures performed at the hospital due to the lockdown?
Dr. Hawa: COVID has created a completely new standard for patient care in the hospital. Medical staff have to wear face masks at all times in the hospital which means I have a mask on for >12 hours/day. I started in the Pediatric and Neonatal Intensive Care Unit where the sickest babies and children are, and I am often sharing devastating news with families. And now with social distancing, I can’t hold hands or share hugs with families in an attempt to console them. This to me is one of the hardest parts of the COVID-19 restrictions.
In regards to procedures performed, by late June when I started residency, my hospital was performing all procedures/surgeries as usual, as we always use PPE in such situations. The only big change is now all patients admitted to the hospital get a COVID screen, and all medical staff have to wear full PPE including the tight fitting N-95 mask and face shield.
Mariam: Have you encountered any children that have contracted Covid-19?
Dr. Hawa: No.
Mariam: What did you learn about our society during this time?
Dr. Hawa: I have made a few observations about our society during this time. First, despite the large efforts to educate society on how serious this pandemic is, the simple wearing of a mask to protect oneself and others, have become politicized or just rejected. This, to me, is frustrating as we need to take measures to minimize the spread of coronavirus.
Second, during such a historic moment where we are navigating our lives through COVID, police brutality and structural racism shined through and persisted. We saw this through the death of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery. We also saw this when data came out the groups most affected by COVID, were those from Black and Brown communities. This is because we have a system that does not value or protect Black life, as evidenced by recurring police violence, and the persistence of structures that keep our communities under-resourced and force some of us to become the essential workers who had to still work during the Pandemic.
For this to be 2020, I am disappointed in how far we did NOT come.
Mariam: Have you encountered racism in the medical field? If you have, is there any way you plan to combat that?
Dr. Hawa: Fortunately, I have not experienced overt racism in the medical field but I have experienced plenty of microaggressions and even benevolent racism. Recently, I had a healthcare worker tell me that my name reminded them of “Hakunamatata from Lion King” or when I was a medical student and a nurse touched my hair without permission to tell me “it’s cute.” Honestly, I handle each situation by just moving on, as I haven’t quite reached the point where I am comfortable addressing them without appearing defensive. My current means to combat this is supporting more Black and Brown people into pursuing medicine. We need more of us in these spaces to advocate for our patients and our best-interests. Obviously, our presence though 100% necessary isn’t enough so I am open to additional ways to help combat institutional and personal racism in the healthcare arena.
Mariam: Thank you for taking the time to meet with me. Just to wrap up, is there anything else you would like to share that I did not ask about?
Dr. Hawa: I am unsure where this will be disseminated, but if there is anyone interested in medicine looking for mentorship and advice I am happy to help.