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COVID-19: DOs and medical students share their experiences

DOs and osteopathic medical students provide details about how they’re adapting to the “new normal.”

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Following President Donald Trump’s declaration of a national emergency over the growing novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, DOs and osteopathic medical students shared how COVID-19 has been affecting their professional and personal lives.

Primary care concerns

Those in private family medicine practices are concerned about remaining accessible to patients while doing their part to limit opportunities for transmission, wrote Nic James, DO, a family physician in Englewood, Florida.

“As a family med doc in Florida, more than 90% of my patients fall into the high risk category by being over 65 years old and/or having chronic medical conditions,” he wrote. “I’ve been actively limiting patient flow through my office and started utilizing virtual appointments in place of face-to-face appointments where able.”

Campus closures

Medical students are adapting to campus closures.

“I have seen a heightened sense of community and trust between students as we are asked to isolate ourselves from each other and public spaces,” wrote Tana Becker-Sievert, OMS II, the Student Government Association executive vice president at the Arkansas College of Osteopathic Medicine (ARCOM). “We have created resource sharing systems, buddy programs, and check in processes almost overnight.

“Students are coming together virtually instead of physically, we are studying in new and interesting ways, and we are working together, just not in the same space. What has originally been perceived as a world frozen in time has actually become one of the most productive and efficacious periods during my education at ARCOM.

“There will be a lot of growth from this process for myself and many of my classmates, as I expect students will discover new ways of interacting and engaging that perhaps they would not have discovered otherwise.”

Taking to Twitter

Many in the profession are sharing information, tips and insights on Twitter:

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