Month of March

March has been quite the tumultuous month. Originally my plan for March had been to study for the NBME shelf exam, which encompasses all material learned from the beginning of the first semester. However, because of the COVID-19 outbreak, the test was canceled in order to fulfill the social distancing orders. Additionally, due to Coronavirus, I was unable to volunteer as much as I would have wished since that would involve potential exposure to the virus. As I’m typing this, I’m back home in Texas, studying for my remaining classes and remaining inside. I find it amazing that over such a short period of time, Coronavirus went from being a relatively unknown illness to causing the entire world to come to a halt. I went from studying for this big exam at the beginning of the month to just taking what I could and getting out of New Orleans as fast as possible! It’s also amazing how our society is dealing with this out of hand situation: The schools are also closed until further notice, most jobs allow you to work from home now, and supermarkets are out of essential items. The most packed cities are now equivalent to ghost towns, and the roar of cars on the road is becoming quieter and quieter as the days go on. This pandemic has certainly reminded me that the steady life that most people had, including myself, can easily change in the blink of an eye. Everyone, myself included, has now been forced to cope with a new normal, a life in which social interaction is a measure of six feet and precautionary measures are being taken for every little thing. Nevertheless, I was quite surprised to hear about the status of our nation’s hospitals, with many places scrambling to ration protective equipment and hospital beds. I never would have imagined that hospitals, which are designated to treat people with all equipment at their disposal, would be completely overwhelmed and unprepared. I’ve always admired health care workers for all of the time and the effort that they put for their daily tasks but seeing how tirelessly they are working to fight this pandemic truly makes me have the utmost respect for all of the nurses, doctors, technicians and first responders in this country. This global pandemic has certainly opened my eyes regarding my future goals to join the medical field. I hope that in the years to come I will learn what it takes to be a part of the medical field if such a scenario were to ever happen again, whether that may be on the front lines within a hospital or in a laboratory creating medicines and vaccines - the possibilities are endless.

March Monthly Hours: 0

Total Semester Hours: 8