Doctor on call: Service During COVID-19

Meet Kamalavani Somasundaram from Kilpauk Medical College, Chennai. An MBBS student currently doing her house surgency, she had to unexpectedly take up a challenging role as an intern at KMC Government Hospital & Royapettah Government Hospital. Right after finishing her final year of studies, she was about to venture into internship. However, with the pandemic set in place and lack of doctors to tackle the rising issues of COVID 19, newly appointed interns (MBBS students) were placed for work at the hospitals. She shares her experience during these unforeseen and testing times.

In frame: Kamalavani at the Royapettah Government Hospital

1. Right after stepping out of your final year of college, the pandemic broke out. How did this affect your studies?

As an intern, everything was new to us, but this pandemic situation was new to almost every other doctor, even to the senior-most doctors we knew. So, our internship started way differently from what we had imagined and still continues to be the same.

It was kind of exciting that we were going to play a part in fighting this pandemic, and kind of sad that we were not going to experience a proper internship programme. Many normal procedures done in various departments were not done due to the pandemic, so we didn't have the experience of doing such procedures which we could have done if it weren't for the pandemic. So that's a great drawback.

2. As doctors' services were in high demand during this time, how did hospitals tackle the situation?

I was proud to see my seniors who were so brave to face the pandemic in the initial phase when there was no clarity about the disease. But they weren't provided with sufficient protective equipment. As the days passed that issue got sorted out too.

In Frame: Kamalavani with her colleagues at work

3. How did you make up your mind to take up the role you were called to do suddenly?

As I said, we were kind of excited and a bit scared at the same time. We made sure we were in this together. Some of our seniors were very supportive. And in our college (KMC) our alumni association allocated a mentor for each of us and made sure everyone was ok. That helped us a lot.

4. Despite the pressure and uncertainty, what inspires doctors to push through these hard times?

We are facing huge physical and mental pressure and we are continuously learning to handle it. Since some of us are sent on COVID duty every week in rotation, we have a shortage in the workforce in non-COVID duty areas thus causing a work overload and considerable physical exhaustion. We are seeing lots of deaths which none of our seniors’ batches have had to face as interns, and this is really hard for us to accept.

Despite all this, the happiness and excitement we get in learning something new and performing a new procedure are immense. And the satisfaction you get when something small you do relieves a patient of his/her symptoms is priceless.

5. When at service, what are your working hours?

The routine changes depending on the department we are in. Now I work for more than 120 hours a week in the current department. In another posting, I had to work for only around 50 hours a week, so it varies!

6. As a human being everyone is bound to be overwhelmed and anxious during such alarming situations. How did this affect your mental health? How did you handle the pressure?

This situation is definitely very disturbing. Sometimes I feel helpless. Reaching out is the best option! I talk it out with my friends and seniors or I just sleep it off if time permits. That is my survival strategy!