“All of our students have a personal story of how the pandemic impacted them as they completed their education here at UMKC,玛丽·安妮·杰克逊说, M.D. 1978年，密苏里大学堪萨斯分校医学院院长. “Across our country, 我们都被迫改变，不仅是我们日常生活的方式，而且, 在医学院, 我们如何回应支持我们的学生.”

Family first

As an M.D.-only graduate who followed a non-traditional route to medical school, Zach Randall, M.D. 20岁，于2019年12月完成该项目. He wasn’t a premed student; rather he entered as an older student who was married with children. 不过，他感到幸运的是，他在疫情高峰期之前完成了学业, he knew starting his residency in emergency medicine at Truman Medical Centers would still put him in the heart of the COVID crisis.

“尽管当时COVID带来了所有不确定性, to know I was going into an emergency department on the front lines of the pandemic — it was pretty scary to think about,” said Randall.

But he never faltered in his desire to pursue emergency medicine and certainly never felt that he was getting a bad rap. “A big idea that helped me through everything was just knowing that this is happening to everyone,” he said. “I made this decision. 无论如何都会发生. 所以现在是时候学习如何保护自己和家人了.”

Graduating in the fall, Randall had a full three months before starting his residency to prepare for working in an emergency room during the pandemic and, in turn, 准备好这对他家庭生活的影响吧. 

Thankfully, he says, the support system at the School of Medicine remained strong. He reached out to current residents at Truman to find out what precautions they were taking, 他们是如何应对大流行的, 以及他们在急诊室工作的感受.

所有这些知识都帮助他放松下来. It also helped to comfort his family support system — even if sometimes those assurances needed extra reinforcement. “我奶奶特别担心，”他说. “有几次她问我，‘你就不能去皮肤科之类的专业吗?’”

Now, Randall is getting into the rhythms of an ER department during the pandemic. 他说:“我们只是假设每个病人都感染了COVID。. “But the data is also clear: Masks work and that gives us all peace of mind that we can operate as normal and not be paralyzed by fear.”

He’s also learning more about his bedside manner and adapting techniques in the pandemic. The mask covering his face, as well as his patient’s, complicates their usual interaction. To make up for that, 兰德尔更重视身体检查, 更加慎重，给病人提供相关信息. “I’m hopefully helping to put my patient at ease by letting them know I’m doing a thorough job.”

他还收到了一些他在大流行前可能没有听到过的积极反馈. “有人告诉我，我用眼睛微笑.” he said. “So that helps.”

意想不到的视听专家

医学院学生Nikhil Havaldar, 在虚拟住院医师招聘的过程中，双方进行了交换. 尽管他可以在自己舒适的家中参加住院医师培训项目, it did increase the importance of the logistics needed for nailing his interviews. 在这个虚拟世界的早期阶段, Havaldar admits, 他没有在变焦相机上花太多心思.

实习季到来后，一切都变了, 作为他追求的住院医师专业, urology, 竞争特别激烈. He hoped to stay local, and the only urology residency in town was at KU Medical Center.

Although Havaldar jokes that he may or may not have been in pajama pants for some of the interviews, 他在镜头前一本正经.

“I probably spent 10-12 hours messing around with the background and getting the right lighting,” he said.

As many people have during the pandemic, Havaldar became his own IT expert and lighting technician. He watched webinars and even got on Reddit to read about how other medical students were perfecting their setups.

他的室友也在进行住院医师招募程序, 所以他们合作在他们的房子里创造了一个最佳采访地点. 他们运行以太网电缆, selected a backdrop color and even bought a ring light to optimize their camera lighting.

“我认为自己对消费科技相当精通, 但从来没有人想从事制作之类的工作,” said Havaldar. “这绝对是一个很大的调整.”

Their house and IT budget could accommodate only one interview location, so they had to share.

“如果我们同时参加面试, it basically came down to rock-paper-scissors to see who had to go to the med school to get online for their interview,” he said.

For Havaldar, 所有的考验和磨难都是值得的, 因为他的泌尿科实习医师在堪萨斯大学医疗中心. 现在，他已经准备好迎接挑战了.

“In urology, you’re able to make a really big impact with your patients and take ownership of their medical issues,” said Havaldar. “You get to work all over the medical spectrum — from lifestyle interventions to really advanced surgical options like robotic surgeries, 我认为这是最酷的事情吗.”

充分利用比赛日

Jacob Perera, 一个医学院的六年级学生, 他说他的比赛日可能和开学时预料的不一样, 但当他回顾在UMKC的时光时，这仍然是一个亮点.

“当我们开始上医学院的时候, 我们想象着一起庆祝比赛日, 和每个人和他们的家人合影,” he said. “我们如何适应和克服, 我认为这充分说明了学校和医疗专业人员的问题.”

On Match Day, some of Perera’s school friends and families organized a small get-together to celebrate — making sure it was safe and shared with those that had already received the vaccine.

“即使是这个小聚会, 在不能经常见到我的朋友之后, it just makes it that much sweeter that we were able to get together and enjoy that celebration,” he said.

The process of just getting to Match Day presented several unexpected and unique challenges this year. “只有有限的亲自访问, 甚至在实习中找到适合自己的地方都是一个挑战,” said Perera.

尽管他大部分的住院医生访问都是虚拟的, 他能够去其中的一个:罗切斯特的梅奥诊所, Minnesota. To make that happen, 他与他的教育小组协调员密切合作, Krisana West, whom he credits for undertaking the herculean task of the schedule coordination required to visit Mayo. 还有无数的COVID协议必须满足, including even more coordination so he could quarantine at home for two weeks after returning. 所有这些都发生在2020年秋天，也就是疫情最严重的时候.

What helped motivate Perera during the pandemic times at school and through residency interviews was to keep the end in sight, 为了实现他想要成为一名医生和想要帮助别人的目标.

“I was still able to be actively involved in patient care and get a full experience while I was finishing my time at UMKC and visiting Mayo,” said Perera. “这绝对不是我们认为会发生的事情, but overall I was just grateful for the opportunity to make those connections and confirm to myself that not only was this a specialty I wanted to pursue, 但梅奥是我想继续训练的地方.”

所有的努力都得到了回报，佩雷拉获得了他最理想的实习医生职位. 他的干劲和毅力被学校里的许多人所分享. 尽管这是独一无二的一年, the students and the school as a whole stayed true to the mission of preparing the next generation of medical professionals to succeed and prosper.

Perera says he’s proud of his entire class and his classmates’ ability to adapt and overcome during such trying and unsure times. “我们中的一些人可能比一般的医学院学生年轻,” he said, “但我们仍然很成熟，很有韧性，能够克服任何挑战.”