By Erin McDonnell, RWJMS Class of 2023
“We’ll observe how the burdens braved by humankind
Are also the moments that make us humans kind;
Let each morning find us courageous, brought closer;
Heeding the light before the fight is over.
When this ends, we’ll smile sweetly, finally seeing
In testing times, we became the best of beings”
-Amanda Gorman
My Caring Companion
Medical school and board examination questions look like this:
“A new severe respiratory illness caused by a newly identified virus is discovered. Which of the following properties of a killed vaccine relative to a live vaccine is the most appropriate rationale for developing a killed vaccine for this illness?
Answer Choices:
(A) Avoids the concern for reversion to virulence.
(B) Develops more rapid protective immunity.
(C) Less likely to require subsequent boosters for lifelong immunity.
(D) Most likely to generate mucosal immunity.”1
If you chose A – great work! Next question:
A new severe respiratory illness caused by a more lethal identified virus is discovered. How do you maintain connections with loved ones and take care of each other while remaining physically isolated for over a year?
Answer Choices:
- Cannot be determined.
- Undefined.
- Too little information.
- All of the above.
It can be difficult to answer a question that has never been asked. For over a year, our world has faced such questions as we grapple with a virus that has infected our bodies, spirits, and healthcare systems. How do you prepare medical students for a test filled with questions that their teachers cannot predict?
Due to the pandemic, today’s medical students may feel stuck at the starting line of their journey to become a physician. With furrowed brows, preparing to race like horses in the Kentucky Derby, we sweep our feet back, looking ahead to the track that lies ahead. Just like these horses, though, we stand waiting, not quite ready or allowed to race, trapped in silos, and blind to the emotions of those who stand beside us.
At least, that seems like an approximation of how I have felt during the last year, glued to my desk and trying my best to succeed in my second year of medical school despite having spent more time at home than at school or in the hospital. While my eyesight has become more myopic from staring at my computer all day, my outlook on the pandemic has improved beyond 20/20 vision thanks to the Caring Companions program.
At the onset of the pandemic in March 2020, a few students and I, along with the guidance of a geriatrician, started an initiative to meet the mental health needs of older adults isolated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Our initiative, which we call Caring Companions, connects medical students to community-dwelling older adults through regularly scheduled phone calls. There are many metrics by which we could define success for this program, but we consider the most important to be the connections fostered between the students and their patients. We document progress through anecdotes from students participating in the program. For example, one of our students shared, “One of my patients lives at home alone, and he was so happy to have someone to talk to. He seemed to enjoy sharing his pastimes and expressed looking forward to my call.”
In collecting these stories, we have noticed that Caring Companions is not a one-way street. One of my colleagues put it best when she expressed, “I have been lucky to foster a close relationship with my companion, who has confided in me and has taught me lessons about my future as a physician that I could never learn in a classroom or from a textbook.”
I, too, have the pleasure of speaking with a patient, Ms. H., who tells me stories of her time growing up in Germany during WWII, her immigration to America, and of the loss of her husband many years ago. She has inspired me to find the beauty in small things, like the hummingbird feeder I purchased after one of our calls, and to open my eyes to the joys that come with life, a gift that I am reminded of each month we speak. In just one year, we have developed a strong bond that helps us both cope with these uncertain times. At the end of each call, she reminds me to “always keep a little smile on my face.” I believe that an individual’s actions in the face of adversity defines their character, and Ms. H has the strongest character of anyone that I have met. She does not know how much she has continued to help me grow and remain strong this past year, and our connection will continue beyond the pandemic.
We started Caring Companions because of our concern that isolated older adults would feel a disproportionate mental and physical toll as a result of the virus. Those predictions did not quite come true. While the worries over physical impact have proven true, with a disproportionate amount of deaths coming from those in older demographics, research has shown the opposite effect for mental health: namely, the virus has worn down the emotional and mental health of younger adults more than it has their elders.2 One New York Times article3 describes older adults as “crisis competent,” a trait that many of the Caring Companions’ students have noticed and admired in their patients. When we picked up the phone as students, we expected our volunteer efforts to help them through the pandemic; we had no idea that our companions would actually be holding our hands pulling us across the finish line.
Part of our medical student training involves learning how to tend to individuals’ psychosocial needs. This is a tenet of providing patient-centered care. Through these calls, we hope that the medical students learn that there is more to medicine than prescribing the most effective medication for a patient. Although I have not been in the hospital this year, I feel more prepared than ever to begin my race. My companion has virtually (in all senses of the word) taught and shown me the beauty of humankind, and what it means to make a human kind. Unlike when you’re sitting alone for a test, in the real world we cannot find the answers to our most difficult questions in books, but rather by searching outward and connecting with others.
References:
- Carstensen, L. L., Shavit, Y. Z., & Barnes, J. T. (2020). Age Advantages in Emotional Experience Persist Even Under Threat From the COVID-19 Pandemic. Psychological Science, 31(11), 1374-1385.
Arbor Vitae 