To My Students

COVID-19 has been wild, hey?

I’ve been remarkably impressed by your maturity. Your progress along a challenging training pathway has been turned upside down; changes to classes, to clinical exposure, to assessment.

I worked with multiple year levels of students in 2020 and you’ve all been remarkably resilient and transparent. The transition into (and potentially out of) digitally enhanced teaching feels somewhat like whiplash. Angst over the changes made, as well as the unknown future of your professional development, has been hard to confront. You’ve all owned the anxiety and supported each other.

Talking about the stressors that have arisen has been fascinating and valuable. We’ve all been open about how difficult it has been, how unsettling digital history-taking is and the fears over not being good enough without clinical exposure. Learning examination skills by practising on your pillow wasn’t what any of us had in mind!

In many ways, though, it’s par for the course. Perhaps there won’t be such radical change again, but the flexibility that has seen you through this will be so valuable in the future. There’s a reason the hospitals all have agility as a core value! You should be proud of what you’ve achieved and how you’ve handled this bizarrely unsettling period. Medicine needs you, for your skills and talents and I’m proud to have worked with you.

Finally, the upcoming crazysocks4docs day is even more relevant this year, as we’ve been tested in such a variety of ways. The challenges within the industry are something that we can only navigate with the support of our colleagues (senior and junior!). I wrote about a few positive experiences last year and would urge you to participate in the online event for 2020!