Medical students hopeful despite difficult pandemic years

The last two years of the pandemic have been a long haul for the health-care system.

Illness and outbreaks, staff shortages, overtime shifts, redeployment, death — those are all things Saskatchewan doctors and others in the health-care profession have had to deal with.

Last week, a survey released by the Canadian Medical Association showed more than half of physicians who responded had experienced burnout and almost as many indicated they would be cutting back their clinical work.

In spite of the long list of concerns and problems facing the field of health care today, medical students at the University of Saskatchewan are hopeful.

“I think the dominant feeling is still excitement. I don’t think the pandemic has really changed any of our reasons for why we wanted to go into medicine,” Gloria Sun, a second-year medical student at the U of S, said.

“The pressures are still kind of constant and there’s not really a sense of relief or change that’s coming,” fourth-year Nathan Baron said. He’s currently applying to residencies in neurology and anesthesiology.

That doesn’t change their hopes for the work they want to do.

“We want to be able to be involved. We want to be able to help change the system and help patients,” Baron shared.

Meredith McKague, associate dean of undergraduate medical education at the University of Saskatchewan, said the school’s four-year medical program spends the first two years predominantly in classrooms, while more clinical experience comes in the third and fourth years.

While clinical learning has largely continued in person throughout the pandemic, McKague said first-year and second-year students over the past two years have been largely online. It has been challenging for students.

Sun, who is also involved with the Student Medical Society of Saskatchewan, said she was “isolated” while she spent that time behind a computer screen, unable to connect and interact with classmates and colleagues as they would have if not for COVID-19.

Sun said the pandemic hit just as she was preparing to interview for entrance into medical school.

“We don’t really know what medicine was like before COVID,” she said.

That has led to new navigation of an already-difficult field of study, leaving students like Sun to chart a new course as fledgling physicians and to figure out what “normal” would have been like, compared to their two years of dealing with COVID.

Baron said he only missed a few weeks when the pandemic hit, as he was beginning his clerkship. During his time completing clinical requirements, he saw surgeons frustrated at their growing waitlists, wanting to do more for their patients, and nurses getting asked to work double shifts when staff called in sick.

Immediately when the pandemic hit, Baron said that his class and the one above him wanted to get involved in any way they could. Since they weren’t immediately allowed in hospitals to help — and generally were not working with COVID-positive patients throughout the pandemic — he said they went about that in other ways, like public health tracing and gathering resources like PPE that were in demand.

“We all want to be able to be present and help out,” Baron explained. “When some big health crisis happens, people want to step up and help out, even if there are policies suggesting you can’t do certain things.”

The pandemic time was a chance to learn about things beyond the restricted definition of medicine.

“You realize that health is really comprehensive and encompasses so much more than the science,” Sun said, mentioning paid sick leave and workplace safety.

Issues like these, she said, are all relevant to medicine because physicians care for people holistically.

Not scared of burnout

Neither Baron nor Sun feels deterred knowing how physicians across the country are feeling burned out. Instead, they feel excited and hopeful, ready to start helping patients themselves and lending support to others in their field.

Baron said burnout is something he believes happens either when something happens in someone’s job and the work becomes unfulfilling or someone does find their work fulfilling, but the pressure of added factors piling on puts stress on them.

“You’re feeling overwhelmed with all the pressures of everything else, so it’s hard to go every day and perform at a high level and be enthusiastic about it,” Baron explained.

There have been plenty of reasons for doctors to feel this way and the constant pressure hasn’t lessened two years in.

Earlier in the pandemic, Baron said even the simple added task of wearing full PPE slowed physicians down and took time away from seeing patients. He said it was a necessary step for safety, but an added issue that led to backed-up schedules made more difficult with bed, resource and staffing shortages.

The students said these are issues they’ve either seen or discussed frankly in their classes.

“I think it helps that we see it coming and we have learned about it so early on in our careers,” Baron said.

He thinks having strategies to cope moving forward, and knowing others in the profession have been working to improve situations for those working in health care already, will protect them against burning out themselves.

McKague shared that some students feel they aren’t as prepared for their field coming out of school because of missed program opportunities and limitations during the pandemic.

However, Baron and Sun both feel they have been very well equipped for the realities facing them as they continue with their studies and into the medical profession.

“I think I’m hopeful for our energy,” Sun said, adding she thinks there is a need for fresh perspectives, even though they still have lots to learn.

Thinking about beginning her clerkship in the coming months, Sun said she is “definitely very excited to stop looking at PowerPoint every day,” and ready to start doing more hands-on work after a very hands-off two years.

She’s also looking forward to the camaraderie of working alongside others in her profession and interacting more with her peers, whose support is key for success and mental health in their work.

“I think as the community grows to become more connected, there is a lot of potential to fight back against burnout,” Baron added.