This is Kevin. He is an internal medicine resident.
“Right now, internal medicine residents don’t have the same workloads as they typically do (which are usually quite considerable). But the most challenging times are the days between work. When you have all that time to sit and obsess about your encounters with patients who potentially have COVID-19, question every sniffle or sore throat you might have, or worry about your loved ones.
My partner is also in medicine and is by all accounts high risk. That means we have to socially distance within the household. That’s probably the most difficult part. At least when I’m working, I don’t have time to be worried about it.
COVID-19 is very intrusive that way. There are no diseases that have ever followed me home.
I am encouraged by just how resilient my friends and colleagues are. How well we work with uncertainty, but also how honest we are about our fears. It has been said that having been a physician or a trainee during COVID-19 will be something we hold on to for the rest of our lives. I’m glad that it will be my fellow residents who carry that institutional memory, because I really believe in them as advocates.”
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