To my fellow medicine faculty members, sorry for being presumptuous but if you guys are like me - struggling physically, mentally, emotionally and professionally during this pandemic - imagine how our students/trainees/colleagues are doing? (A thread)

This crisis is arguably unprecedented in its scale & impact yet it amazes me how we still seem to think that we can do things the “way things should be”. Why can’t school calendars or licensure examination schedules change? Why can’t such be the parameters for acting/planning?

We keep on saying we are “in the same boat” yet our actions betray the fact that some of us are in luxurious suite-cabins, many are cramped in econo class, while others are stowaways. Why can’t we factor in the “last, least and lost” in our decisions? In our demands?

End the sem. Allow for catch up mechanisms for the students when things settle down. Given that all of us are also dealing with our own professional AND personal responses to COVID, can we really take the time to “mark” our students in the traditional sense of the word?

Let’s give them learning materials to study on their own time. Let’s talk to them about their thoughts on this whole crisis? What can we do to improve our current health systems which are proving woefully wanting in responding to people’s needs.

If we will insist on discussions, can’t we focus on how the social determinants of health are so glaringly evident in these troubled times? Can’t we talk about the impact of physical distancing and how incompatible that is with the practice and art of medicine?

Teaching & learning the skills can wait when things get better. And they will. It’s not impossible nor unreasonable to suggest since it seems our whole society’s paused anyway. Why can’t we adjust to the circumstances as educators and not shift most of the burden on our learners?

End the sem. Believe me, wherever they are, the students ARE learning. Maybe the best we can do is to help process their experiences with them, but given what’s happening now, I don’t think it’s such a bad thing to allow them to set the terms of such.