Dr. Terry: The Newcomer’s View

 In March and April, when everything ground to a halt, I was a second-year fellow at Duke University working on my robotics training. They had to limit staffing to one trainee per OR, so residents covered the reduced caseload and fellows like me worked from home on research and remote tasks like reviewing patient charts. It was a very strange transition. I’d been going in early and staying late through years of college, med school, internship, residency, and fellowship, and then all of a sudden I had to figure out how to fill these quiet, no-structure, work-from-home days.  

On the positive side, I got to stay home and spend more time with my 9-month-old daughter than I ever thought would be possible. The downside was the aimlessness, which felt very stressful. I returned to Duke in May and finished my fellowship in mid-August, and then we moved to Gainesville, Florida, where I’ve been settling into new positions at University of Florida and the VA Medical Center during the pandemic. Throughout all this upheaval, a few tips have helped me stay balanced instead of burnt out.

Turn off the news—and call your family. Early in this pandemic, I had to stop watching the news because the overwhelming negativity was stressing me out. I lived and worked in a bubble, and it actually helped a lot. I replaced that focus on the outside world not only with my work and my wife and child, but also with loved ones I suddenly had time to catch up with via phone, text or FaceTime. It’s something I’ve continued because nurturing those close family relationships has been beneficial for my mental health and boosted my resilience, as well as helped my family get through the crisis.

Enjoy your coworkers. During lockdown, isolation from coworkers was tough. Whether we’re venting, telling jokes, or talking about our families, it’s energizing to be around people that are like-minded and enjoy working hard on the team that supports you. One of the most enjoyable parts of coming back to the hospital was getting into the OR with our familiar circulator nurses, scrub nurses and residents. Now I appreciate the people I work with more than ever.

Say no when you need to. One of the most consistent pieces of advice I’ve gotten from mentors is not to feel pressured to say “yes” to everything people ask of me as the new guy. That’s even more important now, when COVID makes many things take longer and require more resources. In addition to my responsibilities with patients, I’m now onboarding at two institutions and moving into a new house, so I’ve tried to restrict extra activities. I was asked to help screen residency applications this year, which is something I normally love to do, but I surprised myself by saying no. It’s the right decision because stretching myself too far could affect the quality of my work and certainly would add to my stress. This is a marathon, not a sprint, and I’m trying to treat it that way for now.

Focus on the good you’re doing. When we came out of lockdown, a triage system moved acute cases to the front. Virtually all of our first cases were high-risk cancers. As an endourologist who does a lot of stone surgery, I was also doing kidney stone procedures on patients whose severe stones had resulted in serious infections. Instead of procedures that improve quality of life, we were doing mostly life-saving surgeries. Operating on people in acute physiological distress felt very meaningful, and it helped create urgency about our work. We were eager to get there every day. The experience has also given me a greater appreciation for all the people and the actions it takes to get our patients to surgery and care for them postoperatively. I see the good we’re all doing as a team.