Days of (Lots of) Zoom and (Not Enough) PPE

My dad is a brilliant scientist so the young people in my covid-19 "restez chez vous" or "stay at home" mini society were perplexed by his relative technophobia:

After days of zooming with trainees, friends, song-teacher, colleagues, medical school leaders and preparation for zooming with patients, I channeled Inspector Columbo (I actually do that more often than you might think but that's a story for another time) and asked my dad again:

Ok, so you are sure there is no built in camera in your computer?


Proving that if you ask one more time, you might get the answer you want, i.e., the one that leaves the door of hope open, my dad answered: well....I don't think so because I've never used it....

OK...then I'm going to send you a zoom link and see what happens.


I am very proud of my dad, in his 80s, because his familiar awesome face was soon staring at the well functioning camera of his computer. He figured out how to unmute himself and how to video me in after less than 30 seconds.

I told you he was brilliant!

Zoom-a party for our med school society. Not as well attended as our usual drinks/food in a swanky place party but the people who joined made each other laugh.

Let's just say that you don't want to know what some esteemed medical professionals recommend as a perfect solution if you run out of toilet paper.

No, really...trust me: someone reading this will run out of toilet paper and you still won't want to know.

Zoom-a meeting for all the Training Directors of our medical school. That was a very helpful zoom. You won't be surprised that like in most medical centers, the issue of scant PPE (Personal Protective Equipment)  is one we are grappling with.

It's one of the unique things about doctoring these days: we really have to stay calm so we can help people. Ok, that's not unique, that is always true. What is unique is that the protective measures that are necessary for healthcare providers in case of highly communicative disease like Covid-19, are being rationed which is making us more anxious than usual.

We are doing things  never seen in my three decades of American Medicine: we are re-using masks.

On one hand I applaud the economic nature of this move and on another hand, it drives home that the Coronavirus pandemic has quickly transformed staunch habits.

The virus (and its current accolytes of not enough: tests, PPE, epidemiology or governmental understanding of the gravity and mathematics of the situation) is the enemy... yet anxiety is the dangerous frenemy: at the right level, it makes us careful and informed from the right sources such as this link from the CDC  or this coronavirus resource center from Hopkins but at the wrong dose, the panicky dose, it is paralyzing and dangerous for our health and our skills.

So that is the dance for health care providers right now: manage this frenemy so you can face the enemy.

Ironically, the ACGME just started (in the last 2 years) mandating that we heed pervasive issues of limited attention to physician well-being (and this goes for all other health care workers according to existing studies) and this situation illustrates exactly one aspect of the problem: sometimes, well sometimes, well-being is elusive if we want to do our jobs.

Elusive but not impossible.

What are you doing to allow it, even if in smaller islands of moments, at a time like this?

Let me know--please


Love,

Anne