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SAN ANTONIO
             MEDICINE





        Pandemic


        and


        Pedagogy:



        COVID-19 and
        Medical Education


        A Review of “Life on the
        Line: Young Doctors Come
        of Age in a Pandemic”

        By David Alex Schulz, CHP




          Hippocrates’ Greece had two words for
        time: Chronos for normal time and Kairos for
        periods of great challenge, accomplishment
        and risk. Fourth-year medical students un-
        knowingly crossed from one to the other in
        the spring of 2020, as schools across the coun-
        try sped up graduation to help hospitals be-
        sieged by the novel coronavirus.
          New York Times reporter Emma Goldberg
        followed some of those students, speaking
        with them daily. Now in a book, she details the
        experiences of six young physicians thrust into
        the frontlines at Bellevue and Montefiore
        Health Systems during the earliest days of the
        COVID-19 pandemic. The stories of newly-
        minted Drs. Sam, Iris, Gabriela, Jay, Elana and
        Ben provide fresh insights and perspectives on
        the enduring crisis. Documenting their sud-  fore a vaccine was promised or delivered.   training. After all the stress of medical
        den entrée to the world of patient care reflects   Goldberg’s journalistic technique brings the   school—the late-night cramming, the un-
        on how the current crisis may alter medical ed-  stark uncertainty and confusion of those early   godly early wake-ups, the Step 1 exam, the
        ucation for years to come.          days back to life.                   Step 2 exam, all those endless exams—this was
          Goldberg’s “Life on the Line: Young Doc-  With last names redacted, we are intro-  supposed to be a spring of unwinding, before
        tors Come of Age in a Pandemic” (Harper   duced first to Dr. Sam as he finds his world in   residency started in July.”
        Publishing, June 2021) refrains from political   flux: “The third Friday in March was Match   Instead, NYU offered Sam’s class early
        or polemical judgments; its examination pro-  Day. After four years of medical school, Sam   graduation if they wanted to work in hospi-
        vides very personal recounting of events from   and his classmates would be placed into resi-  tals overwhelmed by the surge of COVID-
        spring through summer, 2020, concluding be-  dency programs for the next phase of their   19 patients. Swearing to the Hippocratic




         30     SAN ANTONIO MEDICINE  • December 2021
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