Opinion: Waiting for my daughter Blueberry in the Year Zero of Covid-19
Medicine is typically an intimate interaction with its one-on-one conversations and physical exams behind closed doors. Covid-19 is changing that as doctors and other clinicians are learning to care for patients while social distancing via telehealth. I was surprised to learn that this distanced care extends to intensive care units.
As a first-year doctor specializing in psychiatry, I was redeployed in the beginning of March to work in the newly created ICUs in my New York City hospital. Before Covid-19 emerged, first-year doctors were expected to perform the initial exam on each of their patients every morning, which would later be repeated by more senior doctors. To preserve personal protective equipment and limit exposure to the virus that causes Covid-19, the process has been streamlined. It’s now my job to gather from a distance information like ventilator settings, drip rates, and vital signs while more experienced clinicians examine our patients.
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