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2020 MEDICAL YEAR
IN REVIEW

Face-Mask-to-Face Medicine

By Madeline Ruszala, UIWSOM, OMS-IV

Knock, knock. The door swings open and I’m nervously thrust fect my medical education? Would I have the opportunity to learn
into the exam room. Out of habit, I reach out to shake the patient’s everything I needed to know to become a physician? Would I be able
hand as I introduce myself, “Good morning, I’m Student Doctor to graduate on time? Questions such as these raced through my mind
Ruszala. It’s nice to meet you.” The patient raises his eyebrows in a look day and night.
of confusion as I pull my hand back unshaken. I realize in that moment Being taken off my rotation due to a global pandemic was a paradox.
that I’m not learning to practice medicine in the same world I was in I had chosen to pursue medicine because I wanted to help people when
just a few months ago. I smile and wonder if he can see the smile in they were unwell. I understood that being around patients with com-
my eyes because the rest of my face is hidden behind my mask and municable diseases would be a risk to myself and my family. I knew
under my shield. This mask may be only one millimeter thick, but it that I would likely get sick more frequently than others. However, I
feels like a concrete wall between the patient and me in that moment. never considered I would live to see a pandemic like this. I surely never
Ten weeks prior, cases of COVID-19 began to surge in the United expected to be told that when the healthcare needs of the country were
States and medical students across the country were pulled out of hos- at their peak, I should stay home. The level of internal conflict this
pitals and clinics as a protective measure to reduce exposure and con- brought was painful. I wanted to be there to help. I wanted to put my
serve the personal protective equipment supply. We were told that it training to good use. I knew that I was not quite ready to treat patients
would be a two-week pause in clinical rotations as we attempted to on my own, but there had to be some way I could be helpful when the
“flatten the curve” across the country. Fourteen days quickly turned hospitals and doctors were overtaxed. And yet, what I was being asked
into six weeks and then ten weeks. I had spent the past two months at to do was “stay home and stay safe.”
home, avoiding the grocery store, completing coursework on Zoom, My part in helping to control the spread of this illness was not in
trying to explain to my one-year-old daughter why the park was closed, the clinics; it was in my own home. My role was staying out of public
and worrying about what the future would hold. How would this af- places and encouraging my loved ones to do the same, especially in the

24 SAN ANTONIO MEDICINE • December 2020