Rural Family Medicine Resident on how COVID-19 ‘Forever Impacted’ Outlook on Becoming a Physician

Makayla Arnett Lewis, MD, is a second-year family medicine resident in the University of Kentucky College of Medicine’s rural family medicine program in Morehead. She graduated from the College of Medicine’s Rural Physician Leadership Program, a specialized training program in rural medicine.

She explains how the virus “forever impacted” her perspective of becoming a physician.

Why did you go into medicine?

Medicine was something I naturally became interested in around my sophomore year of high school between my academic interests and family experiences with illness. I also knew that I wanted to live and work near where I grew up in rural eastern Kentucky, and there’s no better place to practice medicine than at home.

When the COVID-19 pandemic began, where were you in your medical education journey?

At the beginning of the pandemic here in the U.S., I was finishing my fourth and final year of medical school at UK, although at the time I was rotating in the emergency department at St. Claire HealthCare in Morehead. I believe I was on shift when the first patient tested positive for COVID-19 in Morehead, which was unsettling because no one knew what the next few days or weeks would look like.

How did you adapt to the challenges of the pandemic, personally, and professionally?

COVID-19 changed so much for so many, but I am blessed to have not had significant challenges or loss over the past year and a half.

At the end of medical school, our capstone course to prepare us for residency was transitioned to a completely online course. Completing my last day of medical school at home in my living room was an experience I never saw coming four years prior, that’s for sure!

Furthermore, our Match Day and graduation ceremonies were both held virtually. Beginning residency in July of 2020 almost felt like a return to normal as most of the summer had been spent at home after graduation. In some ways, things didn’t seem too out of the ordinary as my co-interns and I had never practiced medicine outside of a pandemic. Still, it was difficult as managing the effects of COVID-19 and other advanced diseases despite COVID-19 became our new normal. Zoom became an essential skill for our clinic, hospital, and residency meetings. Our weekly didactics sessions were attended from our living rooms. Virtual clinic appointments were a constant source of entertainment and, often, frustration. But this was the world in which we lived and worked, so we carried on.

What have you learned through the pandemic?

Becoming a new physician in 2020 is most certainly a time in my career that I won’t soon forget. As I reflect on that time now, it is much easier to remember the good than the bad. I witnessed the creation and distribution of a wildly successful vaccine in record time – a feeling I can only imagine is akin to the creation of the smallpox or measles vaccine.

I, hopefully, was able to provide encouragement and education to patients in an insanely uncertain time in health care. I was baptized into the practice of telemedicine which is likely a new standard in health care. And time and time again, I observed the resiliency of people in the face of frustration, fear, and sadness.

Overall, the past year and a half with its ups and downs has forever impacted my perspective as a physician and my career in ways that I probably will never quite fully understand. n