With everything that is going on in the world today, there is so much turmoil and so much flux – I almost feel like nothing is certain anymore, including medical education. Most medical schools have been implementing virtual learning for over two months now, although my school just this past week has begun allowing students to return to rotations in the hospital. However, schedules are still up in the air, and there is much that is unknown about the residency application cycle as of now. With Step 2 CK dates getting cancelled left and right (my friend said he is currently on his 10th test date, having been rescheduled so many times), the Step 2 CS announced this week to be cancelled all together (can’t lie about this one, really glad about getting my $1300 back), and some students, including myself, still stuck at home away from the hospital, it is tough to not feel vulnerable and nervous about the future. Students are worried that they will not receive the clinical experience that is needed to succeed in first year of residency, that they will not get adequate time with attendings who are to serve as their letters of recommendation writers, that they will not be able to figure out what they really want to specialize in having lost the time to engage in certain rotations. This is an incredibly challenging time, and it seems the only way to manage is to take each day, one at a time. Although we all crave certainty and knowing what to expect, that is simply something that is not feasible right now, and learning to be adaptive is a skill that I am positive most of us will hone coming out of quarantine.
