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#StillProfessional
31 Plays5 years ago
What exactly is professionalism and why are underrepresented minorities more harshly policed? Dating as a medical student, Sickle Cell Awareness Month, Vice Presidential Candidate Kamala Harris, and black hair in the hospital.
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Transcript
Introduction and Sponsorship
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SNMA presents The Lounge is proud to be sponsored by Black Men in White Coats, an organization that seeks to increase the number of Black men in the field of medicine by exposure, inspiration, and mentoring. And to all you amazing individuals listening right now, if you're on the journey to medicine or even considering it, visit blackmeninwhitecoats.org to get tips, tricks, and mentors. Now let's start the show.
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🎵
Hosts and Show's Mission
00:00:52
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What's poppin', everybody? Welcome to SNMA Presents the Lounge. Whether you're in the student lounge, doctor's lounge, or lounging around at home, get ready to join SNMA for meaningful conversations on topics affecting minorities in medicine and groups that often sit at the margins of healthcare. I'm student Dr. Aldwin, and I'm feeling like
00:01:14
Speaker
dedication. My man Money Making Nip. Rest in peace. You know what I mean? His birthday was last week, so I'm dedicated to serving underserved communities, being an impactful medical student, and changing people's lives. So that's the music that I'm loving, the energy I'm feeling today. How y'all feeling?
00:01:32
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Well, I'm student Dr. Isabella and I'm feeling like savage remix though with Beyonce because I'm all about women empowerment and you know, us taking back what we deserve, which is our independence and support from other people.
00:01:51
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What's up, everybody? This is student Dr. Erica Dingle. And this week, I'm feeling like Drake's laugh now, cry later. Because you know what? It's so much going on in life. I can't be bogged down by all this negativity. So I'm a laugh now, cry later.
00:02:12
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Vocal's on point. We love that. We got to get to a contract. What's up? Absolutely.
Current Medical Events
00:02:20
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So it's everyone's favorite part of the show. It's time to run the list. For our preclinical students, running the patient list on the wards allows the team to address pressing matters of the day. In this segment of the show, we'll be discussing some recent events in medicine
00:02:39
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affecting our communities and the populations we serve. So let's get into it, y'all. Yes, sir. So y'all know what season it is? Tell them what season it is. Let them know.
Cuffing Season and Relationships
00:02:54
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It's cuffing season. Well, not really though. Cuffing season, I mean, it kinda is. Cuffing season has officially started and right now we're in the scouting portion this season.
00:03:12
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actually run from August, yeah, from August 1st to February 1st. And I would like to, if I may, give you guys the rundown of the actual season and then we could take in or pick up on a conversation regarding where everybody might be right now or how we could actually manage. I have a very important question, though, is
00:03:38
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you know, how is cuffing season going to happen in this climate right now? It's COVID, you know? It's happening. Tinder, Twitch, Bumble, Facebook, dating, it's real. Let me shut up. But yeah, people is out here and still trying to get their cuffing season schedule popping.
00:03:59
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Nah, don't shut up. Facebook dating is real. Tinder. Bumble. Facebook dating. Energy. You know what I'm saying? Sorry. You know, people's thumbs is getting real, you know what I'm saying? Like, mess up right now. We're serious? I'm getting, uh, what's it called? Twitter Fingers? The Quervin, Tennessee, Vitus. You know what I'm saying? Not for Quervin. Right, right, right, right. You feel me? Oh my God. Wait. I think that's the right condition though. Yeah, it might actually be, um,
00:04:29
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But so right now this is the scouting portion where you are looking for a partner online and that continues through August 31st. Drafting season would be September 1st through the 30th where you're picking your top candidates.
00:04:46
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And then tryouts, I think the tryout stage is going to be the hardest stage is where you start to go on many dates. So now I've seen people are actually dating on like Facebook, um, Facebook, not live, but you know where you could call somebody direct or a zoom, or if you even have FaceTime and some people are actually getting to know people well.
00:05:09
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I'm impressed. Yeah, that's real. And I think also a big part of it too is because we're all virtual right now already through school. So people are just kind of throwing in the dating, you know, with it too. It was like kill two birds with one stone kind of thing. But my question is how do we as med students do this in a way that is not messy?
Dating Challenges in Medical School
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And yeah, how do we do that?
00:05:38
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What is messy to be exact? Dating your classmates? Dating your classmates? Well, I think that's really tough now. With it being virtual, people don't necessarily interact personally, so it just makes it very challenging to
00:05:58
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get that level of intimacy and connection with your classmates. Of course, there's going to be people that are able to do that. But I think we as human beings, we're just socially adept in terms of moving forward together and in person. Now, when you change the dynamics and now I'm seeing you on the screen, I don't necessarily resonate with your character, your personality, your beauty as much as I would in person. I mean, that's me personally.
00:06:23
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But even outside of that, even when I was in my first two years of med school and then even my third year, like I wasn't necessarily interacting with my classmates. I was really on my own grind. You know what I'm saying? Because I do believe that there sometimes needs to be a separation of business and a separation of personal. You know what I mean?
00:06:41
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I was on my own thought, you know what I mean? Like going into class, like I'm about this money, I'm about to get this bag, I'm about to get this white coat, I'm about to get this residency, you know what I mean? And I'm not saying nobody, I got, you know what I'm saying? I got tunnel vision, you know, by temporal humanopia, you know what I mean?
00:06:56
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But let me ask you this often though. In your experience when you have, you know, I guess, I don't know if you've dated classmates or just dated people in medicine, or maybe actually let me ask you if you dated anyone outside of medicine, did they seem to understand what that meant in terms of your schedule, in terms of, you know, what you had going on for yourself?
00:07:18
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I think it really depends on the person because I've dated certainly outside of medicine and sometimes even like stressing the fact like, oh, I got an exam tomorrow. Like I can't, oh, I got an exam in three weeks. Like I'm gonna be on the low, like grinding. Sometimes people don't really understand and just be hitting you up like, yo, why you not answering my texts? Why you not answering my call?
00:07:37
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Like, I got to study. Like, you want me to fail out? And I got 60K for this year. Even more than that, depending on what year you are in medical school that I got to worry about. If I got to come back, maybe interest, all that. So I think just, like, laying the groundwork when you're initially, like, talking to somebody and saying, hey, like, my time is going to be really limited. And so you got to respect it, or you got to walk out the door. And I'm not going to be ashamed. This is my future. This is my back. So anything that's interrupting that is interrupting my process of life.
00:08:07
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Absolutely. And if I may, I can actually speak to dating someone while in med school that was in med school and then dating someone that was not in med school. And it was the challenge of
00:08:23
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Well, first time zones being different, the schedule of being in class and having to study right after class, you know, it really makes it hard for, especially for like a budding relationship to really progress. And that ended quickly.
00:08:42
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My more successful relationship was dating an upper-med who was actually able to help me navigate the process, who understood, OK, this is what it is when it comes to exams. We were not on the same exam schedule, so we had to manage our time effectively. And it was time well spent. We were reviewing concepts and stuff together, so I think it's something to be said about dating someone in your profession.
00:09:11
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Right. And that's interesting that you mentioned that Erica, because the whole concept of just like being a black woman in med school, right? Like we're, you know, such a small minority of people. So it's kind of like, did you ever feel like, oh, you couldn't date someone, um, or maybe date a black guy who was in your class or above you because that's supposed to be like a friend or, you know, you already established that relationship as like kind of a friendship and you didn't want to take it like a step further. Like what was your experience with that?
00:09:39
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Um, that's a really good question. So I, there's like a saying, you don't, you don't poop where you eat, right? Um, it's way, way, way worse than that. But so I've always kind of considered that. Um, and I just like to be low key. Um, so if we're dating, we're dating, nobody else knows that we're dating because I don't like people in my business. And again,
00:10:08
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to remain focused, like it has to be, okay, if we make this decision as students, are we going to push each other forward? Are we movements by ourselves and forces when we're together? Does this work? If it doesn't, then, you know, I'm not dating nobody, black, white, whatever, that's not going to help push me towards my goal of becoming a physician.
00:10:33
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girl and that's real because that applies even to pre-meds and i'm talking to any pre-med right now who's listening because i was there you know i'm just i just this my first day out i just got here or whatever but i can let you know that
00:10:48
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Let them know the wide price, too. OK, it's going up. That's all it's going up. But as a pre-med, and I can speak to this, especially as a pre-med at Howard at HBCU, where it's supposed to be a very wide pool, quote unquote, of eligible Black people, it's still a culture of, I guess, immaturity in regards to being serious about dating and kind of understanding
00:11:16
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um, like the dynamics that go with that and the responsibility that comes with that. And so I just, the main thing I just kind of noticed as a pre-med was just, you know, you're going through this process of, first of all, you're not only just having to take all of these courses that you probably never taken before, like organic chemistry or, you know, biochemistry and all of those things. But then on top of that, you're trying to be, you're trying to apply to medical school, which in itself is a job, you know, you have to dedicate time
00:11:40
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to say you're studying for the MCAT or you're putting in your primary applications, you're filling out your secondaries, and it's just a whole process. Or you're trying to figure out what you're about to do for the summer to make your application competitive. So it's a constant process on top of just trying to get good grades. And so
00:11:56
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You can just imagine when you're dating somebody who's not shaming no other majors, like every major is valid. No one come for me. But just somebody who's probably not going to professional school. And so at this point, they're just probably trying to look for a job after school, right? So they're not doing the same thing you're doing. So it's more so like their process is not your process. And so now when you guys get to dating,
00:12:21
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your priorities are just not really in line. And it's just a lot of time being wasted, I noticed, at least for me, trying to date or just get to know people throughout school. And so I would just like there to be more so of an awareness that everybody who wants to date someone who's probably trying to go to medical school, you just have to be prepared that their time is strict. You can't be wasting people's time out here. So let me leave it at that.
00:12:50
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Yeah, let's talk about also black men in medicine, you know, dating as a black man in medicine. You know, we were like Mr. Clean, we're here. No break for my career. I mean, so real talk like it's just interesting. Like when we talk about dating and being a black man, like I just feel oftentimes like we have such a dearth of options. Like we come in like even my class, we got like double the amount of women than men. Like I think it's like four or five men. And then we got like twelve
00:13:18
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women but it's crazy like none of us like none of black men in our class in my class dates any of the black women or any of the black women in the school. So it's just like that dynamic like I think it's very interesting to see how many of my classmates many of my black classmates date outside of medicine.
00:13:34
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Meanwhile, we have a lot of options within medicine. But for me, it's personally about the connection and seeing who the individual is. So I'm really apt and open to, you know, who you know, who's who's available. I mean, I'm always been like open minded do like whether you got a kid, whether you a mother, three, whether you a doctor, like I'm always out here trying to scheme because it's all about elevating. We got to build dynasty. Black Power is so empowering. And we need that for our community. So, you know, like on that real court.
00:14:03
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to I appreciate the black men in medicine for sure. And just to your point of like being choose a choose a choose a choose a. Right. So as we as we as we prepare to, I guess, bring awareness, if you will, to sickle cell sickle cell disease, which is
Black Patients and Healthcare Bias
00:14:30
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Um, the month of September created by Congress for research and treatment this month highlights and sheds light on those with sickle cell disease. And that can be an issue when it comes to procreation, because as you know,
00:14:45
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If you are both carriers, you can produce a child with sick cell disease. So I mean, that's something else to consider. And I don't know that enough black people actually go through genetic testing. I don't know that they think to. And we are the ones that are plagued with this disease, unfortunately, most of the time.
00:15:06
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Right. And that's something really important to consider, especially when we talk about sickle cell awareness, we also have to bear in mind about all the discrimination and prejudice that they face on a daily basis when trying to receive treatment because sickle cell patients have
00:15:22
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pain crises, which can be super, super severe. And many times have to go to the hospital coming for reasons of needing opioids to treat that pain. But then you have the fact that, oh, this person's black.
00:15:38
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They probably are just drugs, you know, addicts and they're just seeking to get a fix. And there's just a lot of like culture surrounding that, a lot of like, I guess, fake news surrounding sickle cell patients and kind of that situation. And it's crazy because we like, during my first week, we actually talked about sickle cell and we had real patients come in and talk about
00:16:00
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just general things and issues that they face on a daily basis. But I would just really like to know, have you guys experienced any sickle cell patients during your rotations? Or do you guys have any experiences treating them? And like, how was that like?
00:16:15
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I will say like also like talking about the mental health like dealing with the fact that you never know when you have a sickle cell crisis like that's so like anxiety provoking and can cause depression the whole host of psychiatric symptoms so I think we got to also look at that as well the physical manifestations but also the mental manifestations and talking to your point about
00:16:35
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dealing with and managing patients with sickle cell. Yes, I've had the opportunity on my rotations and I was on my pediatric rotation and in that experience, like I learned how to manage sickle cell patients, I learned how to interact with them, how to make them feel comfortable, how to understand the psychiatric and as I mentioned, the physical diagnosis of the patient and it's incredible to think
00:16:57
Speaker
Like when you're dealing with sickle cell crises, we oftentimes think about, like you mentioned, the opioid epidemic, we mentioned giving drugs, they may be drug speaking, but we gotta look past that and look beyond that because it's all about also their environment, the support that is established for them. It's all about being able to recognize the symptoms and oftentimes that might be a very disenabling opportunity for many people in communities of color. You're like, you know, like you'd be in a family or you'd be at home and people are like, you could deal with it like,
00:17:27
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Nothing's wrong with you. Like you I like not like I'm having an attack. Like I could literally die from this, you know, and people don't understand. They undermine that. Like this is something that is real serious. And I advocate and I'm and everybody to the to the people that's listening. Please donate blood. That's one of the main ways that we can deal with this crisis. And like was mentioned, it's not oftentimes discussed in the news. They kind of slide it on the rug because it's dealing with people of color. Anything that's dealing with people of color, unfortunately, isn't newsworthy to people is newsworthy to me.
00:17:56
Speaker
You know, I love y'all, man. My people that's dealing with sickle cell. So shout out to y'all. Y'all dealing with it day in, day out. Y'all walk out. Nobody could tell me like, I'm looking at this person and I could say they got sickle cell. You know what I mean? Or this person, they got this and that. You know what I mean? So y'all walk out and y'all live your life and your truth and your reality. And I just want to say I commend y'all and y'all inspire me to be the best physician. So hopefully one day being a neuropsychiatric doctor, I'll see y'all in the awards area. Salute y'all.
00:18:24
Speaker
Isabella, you mentioned that they brought in patients that actually suffer with sickle cell to your class. And I think that is so key in exposing physicians or soon to be physicians to how patients look because right now,
00:18:45
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Aldwin just mentioned, you'll have a patient with sickle cell that walking around the street and they look normal. But to see them in crisis, it's something totally different. So I really like that aspect of your program, exposing you guys to stuff like that and teaching you about it so soon. Because we've been hearing so much about the opioid crisis. And it seems to now have been shedding more light on, if you will.
00:19:14
Speaker
This ain't new. It's not new. I used to work in emergency medicine as a tech, and I would see people that don't look like us, white people, if I'm frank, coming in, and they were the ones that were seeking drugs. And, you know, now all of a sudden, it's an opioid crisis within the Black community. Like, this ain't new, you guys. No, because, you know, it only becomes relevant when white people deal with them, right? So...
00:19:43
Speaker
I mean, once again, you have, something's always been there within the black community. And it's like, oh my gosh, this is such an issue because someone who's white like has to deal with it too. And it's, I think we have to realize that we have to be the ones to advocate for ourselves, right? Because it's, Lord knows that the media, the government, no one's advocating for us. It's really up to us. But I mean, that leads into just kind of a follow-up of how are we gonna get people to be aware of just
00:20:12
Speaker
figuring out when someone's actually in pain, you know, how do we bring about that proper teaching of pain perception? Do we do that like right off the bat first year med school or do we do that during residency? What do y'all think?
00:20:24
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We do that early from the get go. And I think often and I mentioned this like an earlier podcast episode like that. It's important to highlight they've done studies where they've actually tested medical students perception of people's pain, their patient pain. And they found oftentimes that black people's perceptions of pain was misaligned with other ethnic groups. So they would oftentimes say, hey, this black person's pain is not real. Like they have a higher pain threshold, which
00:20:51
Speaker
not necessarily the case. Pain is very subjective. It is not really race-based, per se. Exactly. To that matter is when someone's telling you they're in pain, you have to take that in some type of regard. Now, of course, you're going to look at the physical symptoms. Of course, you're going to look at other things to note, all right, maybe this person may be exaggerating or not, but you have to really listen to them. And that's why we as physicians have to advocate for that. And starting early on from day one, hey, there's
00:21:17
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There's this is going on, you know what I'm saying? There is this discrepancy within the field of medicine. And so in order for us to be competent physicians, we have to highlight all these differences.
00:21:28
Speaker
Absolutely. But you know what's crazy? Like, we're treated, and I'm speaking for the black community whenever I say we're, let's be clear. We're treated differently as patients. And we're also treated differently as professionals in medicine. Period. Let's be real. We're just treated differently. And I mean, I don't know when
00:21:55
Speaker
when in medical school they should teach you about how to treat persons professionally different, but it seems like the ones that have been physicians for so long, they don't care.
Professional Bias and Cultural Identity
00:22:08
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They treat you as if
00:22:10
Speaker
I don't want to say scum, but I will say scum. They look at our outfits, and when we're professionally dressed, it's questioned because we're more shapely, or it's questioned because we're styling on you, and it's just something that you just wouldn't understand. My Kinte cloth, whatever I'm wearing,
00:22:34
Speaker
Yeah, this might not be professional to you or my head wrap might not be professional to you, but guess what? It is professional. This is my culture. This is what's normal for us. And I want to add, Erica, I don't know if you, I mean, everyone knows about Dove, right? Like about their beauty products, their, you know, what we shower with, all that stuff, right?
00:22:56
Speaker
But you know what's amazing about Dove is that they had a crown act, which stands for creating an open and respectful workplace for natural hair. So I'm going into natural hair because I think that's a really big issue within professionalism for Black people, right? Black women are, we have many ways we style our hair and
00:23:15
Speaker
And for the most part, we are kind of pressured to style our hair in a certain way that kind of fits in with the culture, I guess the work culture. And so the Crown Act, I just kind of really want to quickly note that they surveyed about 2,000 women. This was in 2019. It was about 1,000 black women and 1,000 non-black. And out of that non-black, 92% of them being white.
00:23:37
Speaker
All age, a big age range from 25 to 64. You had to be employed full time in an office or a field sales environment, or you had to have worked in a corporate office within the last six months. So the main things that they pulled out of this study was that black women are 30% more likely to be made aware of formal workplace appearance policy. 80% of black women felt like they needed to change their hair from its natural state to fit in at work. Black women are 1.5 times more likely to be sent home from work due to their hair.
00:24:07
Speaker
black women's hair is 3.4 times more likely to be perceived as unprofessional. And it was even crazy. The study even included images of different hairstyles. And so they had some hairstyles that had faux locs or a shortcut. And I know that the ones that was rated the most unprofessional, like 34% when they sent them the images, rated the faux locs as the most unprofessional.
00:24:31
Speaker
Like that a black person would carry in the workplace So I just thought that was just so crazy and you know, but based on those stats, I mean like what do you guys think? Like what or at least or at least what do you what have you guys experienced in terms of just discrimination for natural hair? I'm more so Speaking really to Erica. Eric cuz I know Erica you've probably dealt with this With like just natural hair discrimination. What have you what is your own personal take on that? So
00:25:00
Speaker
I have experienced people touching my hair, like from patients to people I've worked with. Like literally, I will never forget, I was doing the blood pressure for a patient and she went and she didn't even say like, your hair looks nice, man. Touch it. It was like, your hair looks nice and grabbed onto a braid. And I just was like, what's happening? This is...
00:25:27
Speaker
And either that or you coming with a new hairstyle and it's, oh, I didn't know your hair could grow that long so soon. You know this is not my hair person. Come on. Let's be real. But since I haven't worked in a hospital setting for so long,
00:25:48
Speaker
I can't really say too much, but I have a friend who's a nurse manager, actually a nurse director at a hospital in Brooklyn, and she was brought up on, I was gonna say, brought up on charges. She was brought up to the committee because she was wearing her hair. Get this, right? She had long braids. They were tied back. But then you would see nurses
00:26:12
Speaker
nonpersons of color working on the floors, actually interfacing with patients with their hair down. So, you know, they're putting in IVs, their hair is getting all on the patient. So how is my pulled back braids not professional, but now you have patients that are exposed to other person's hair. It just doesn't make sense to me. And girls, not just you, even within our space, which is SNMA, right? SNMA and AMA had this conversation
00:26:42
Speaker
like to, I think it was at AMEC and basically I listened to it and it was so crazy. Like the one that really stuck out to me was this one guy, I think he is either he's, I think he's an attending now, but he was talking about his experience as a resident and he had locks and, um,
00:26:57
Speaker
he said that actually even within our own community, which is crazy, because we do talk about professionalism, and how white people treat us, but then sometimes too, you got some black people who out here having their own biases about, you know, hair that they perceive as unprofessional. So basically, like, AMA and SNMA came out with that resolution called combating natural hair and cultural headwear in medical professionalism. But overall, during that conversation, he mentioned how he had like,
00:27:23
Speaker
his attending, pulled him aside and told him, Oh, you could just get so much more far if you just cut your hair. And the guy was like, like, bro, like, literally, I mean, right? Like, no, like, it's crazy. I mean, mind you, he didn't like say bro to his attending. But he was like, he said, he said during this, this convention, that he was like, no, like, you know, he can't cut his hair because that could hit him having locks.
00:27:51
Speaker
could be that bridge between him and his patient's son, right? So like, it's like, you know, it's like, that's the connection that's crucial when you're treating your patients that they can see you and see themselves, right? And it's so important with that. So I thought that was a really amazing thing. So yeah, Erica, thank you for that, because it's important.
00:28:14
Speaker
I just want to mention something like for me like in terms of being on rotations like I think it's something so just beautiful and just enjoyable about seeing a woman in her Kinte outfit or she got the braids on pulling up on rotations or as a nurse like living your truth living your reality and that's how I feel like I don't care I'll be on rotations with my earrings on my nose ring like
00:28:36
Speaker
Y'all gonna respect who I am regardless, you know, I'm gonna bring out my real energy. And I implore everybody like my people's if y'all rotations like I understand, a lot of people are scared of what's like the backlash of doing that. But if you live in in your comfort, living in your zone, then you're gonna be the physician that you ever you dreamed of that you envisioned, and nobody could stop you. No one could deny you your destiny. So
00:28:59
Speaker
That's how I live. I'm not going to hide in the corner and be a shell of myself when my patients have the expectations of me being true to my reality. And like you mentioned, the doctor was like, yo, there's a kid or a patient that might resonate with that and might open up or might explore other clinical opportunities because I was here looking like them or resonating with their character. And so I implore you, be yourself, and I urge you, do not become a shell of yourself.
00:29:29
Speaker
And that's in every area for black professionals because not just in medicine, we're sensitive to the fact that we do have listeners that are in medical school and that are pre-meds, but we have listeners in other areas of business as well and professions as well. So just in terms of professionalism and how
00:29:53
Speaker
how we're treated, like it can be brought up as a, or used as a weapon to keep certain groups of people down when it comes to lawyers, when it comes to professionals, Kamala Harris.
Kamala Harris and Professionalism
00:30:06
Speaker
And that's a whole other discussion, y'all.
00:30:08
Speaker
It really is. And if some of our superiors are the ones that aren't actually being professional, like, OK, so did you email me back when you were supposed to? Because that's not professional behavior, sir. Right. Right. But people want to pick and choose. And yeah, it's one of those difficult conversations. I'm not trying to force a conversation, but y'all, Kamala Harris, I mean.
00:30:38
Speaker
So what's up with that? Because we're talking about professionalism. A lot of people are questioning her professionalism and just even her bid right now as VP candidate. But I know we're all biased with Kamala because, come on, I know we all have our opinions about her, but I would just like to
00:30:58
Speaker
I would like to plug in my own opinion really quick, which is that she is right now she's supposed to be representing black people as she is a black woman as well as Indian. So she's actually also representing the Southeast Asian community. And she's also a HBCU graduate. She graduated from my alma mater. And, you know, Erica can speak to her being Greek because she's an AKA. Shout out to you, my soul lord, Senator Kamala Harris. I Greek thee.
00:31:28
Speaker
Sorry, I had to. I had to, y'all. It's all good. Shout out to the Divine9 too, real quick. Sorry, I had to plug it. Because she plugged it. She plugged it, y'all. Did y'all see it? Yeah. She plugged the HBCU. Uncontrollably not ashamed, and I love it. Just be yourself, her real energy. Put it out there. Plug the HBCUs and for Divine9. She called us her family, and we have to have her back. And I'm shutting up now. Go ahead. I'm sorry. I'm done.
00:31:56
Speaker
No, girl, go off, go off, because you know what? I do think we need a space to be proud of just the fact that she is the VP candidate, you know, and like that's a big deal. Like she has made history. And listen, not everybody agrees with her stances. You can't mention Kamala Harris without mentioning her role as a prosecutor. Right. And what she's done and not done in that sphere or mentioning her policing and her issues or her opinions on policing. I mean, we have to talk about that. And whatever happens this election, if she ends up being VP,
00:32:26
Speaker
being the VP, we have to hold her accountable to everything that she said in regards to what she plans to do to help these situations, right? But, I mean, what do y'all just think overall? Like, what do you guys think she can provide moving forward for us? And even we can talk about the health policy aspect too, because that's a big thing for us as medical students and future doctors.
00:32:50
Speaker
So there are, regarding Senator Kamala Harris's Medicare for All plan, so it kind of differs. We won't go into Bernie Sanders plan, but it kind of differs. We'll know, we just, you know, this is, no, it differs from it. So that's why I wanted to mention it. But it differs in three key areas. So first,
00:33:18
Speaker
The plan includes a 10 year phase in period between the current healthcare system and Medicare for All. And essentially, this would phase people in over like 10 years instead of four years as previous Senator Bernie Sanders had proposed. The next
00:33:38
Speaker
but deals with, I believe it's private health insurance, including a major role for private insurers to offer Medicare plans and pretty much adhere to strict Medicare requirements on costs and benefits, which, I mean, so many lower and middle class, excuse me, citizens would really take advantage of and need it, you know? Right.
00:34:04
Speaker
just due to the piss poor healthcare system that we all face. And then thirdly, this would not impose an additional tax on middle-class families. So I am with her plans
00:34:23
Speaker
there's always room for improvement. But I just, right now, however I felt prior to and however our politics are different from each other, you know, for our listeners, our, our loungers, if you will, I just, I would, I would implore everyone to
00:34:45
Speaker
You know, do your research and just, just, just vote, just vote. Right. That's all go out and vote
Racism in Medicine
00:34:51
Speaker
period. And listen, I want to add this last part in though, because this is very recent, but you know, it's crazy how Kamala has to go through hoops and ropes and tricks to be seen as professional, but we got some white people out here just literally doing whatever in the world they want to do. And they're not being held accountable. Just recently we had that white, um, M four.
00:35:11
Speaker
from, or sorry to those who maybe don't know the terminology, but his fourth, he's in his fourth year of medical school. He was at the University of Minnesota and he apparently, based on what I was told, was drunk and decided on a whim to drive five miles to the George Floyd Memorial and essentially deface it. He spray-planted black on George Floyd's face. And mind you, he's a fourth-year med school student. Like this man has gone through
00:35:41
Speaker
year one of classes, you know, and or year or two years of classes, his clinical rotations, he's met with maybe all kinds of patients and he still is racist. I'm I'm y'all like family. I hope he enjoys his loans. Right. I hope I hope he doesn't get a residency job. I hope that he's working at, you know, like a minimum wage spot where he got a toy, toy.
00:36:07
Speaker
because that is just abhorrent, the fact that he took that initiative to do that. I don't care. You don't got it. Like what engendered that idea? Even if you drunk, like that does not excuse the fact that we are part of this movement and we're being progressive and the fact that you're going to be a future physician and that's your feelings about that. I don't want you to be my doctor if you defacing a George Floyd mural, like who are you? You know what I mean?
00:36:30
Speaker
so I think is is deserving of him if he is it they did say that he is currently unenrolled so we don't know what that necessarily means whether or not he left y'all kick them out or did he withdraw like what's going on because I wanted to be that he was
00:36:46
Speaker
Yeah, we need receipts. We need to know was he kicked? He needs to be kicked out. He needs to be publicly ashamed. Like this is not he should not be able to wiggle his way out of this because Lord knows Lord knows that this is a black person. We would never even smell a hospital. We wouldn't even smell it. It's it.
00:37:03
Speaker
It's disrespectful. And you know, overall, this is just a big like we need to the overall arcing theme of this is just please go vote.
Voting and Political Engagement
00:37:10
Speaker
We still got individuals out here doing whatever in the world that they want to do. And we need to have someone in the office who's trying to hold these people accountable. Please, y'all just just go out and vote.
00:37:20
Speaker
Yeah, get your absentee ballots together students that are, you know, out of state. I don't know how many people are actually returning to their institutions. But in the event that you can't make it to your local poll.
00:37:35
Speaker
start from now and get to a post office because I know here in New York and I'm not sure if it's everywhere right now, but they're putting these locks on our mailboxes. I've seen it literally on my corner. There is a mailbox that's been open since I've been in existence and now I can't send mail through that mailbox.
00:37:59
Speaker
Just another ploy, another distraction, but guess what we're going to do, guys? We're going to vote. We're coming out of the droves. You know what I mean? This is the power that our ancestors fought for. So please vote. Our ancestors died for this. So why not take this opportunity to make change in our communities? You know what I mean? Directly and indirectly. So go out there, represent and show love. And I think that's our list this week, guys.
00:38:27
Speaker
Yep. We love it.
SNMA Events and Support
00:38:32
Speaker
We do, but in honor of mother, daughter, sister, father, grandfather, grandmother, COVID, snatching homecoming season from us.
00:38:42
Speaker
All three of us, right? We all went to HBCUs. Um, so we're going to be bigging up and celebrating and having our own homecoming next month. And I also would like to mention that SNMA founder's day is on October 4th next month. So tune into our show so we can have a celebration and come home via this podcast.
00:39:06
Speaker
It's a celebration. Y'all make sure y'all pull up. We out here. Period. Shout out to Hampton University. Shout out to Morehouse School of Medicine. Shout out to Howard University, the best and the capstone of the HBCUs.
00:39:25
Speaker
The lounge is also grateful to the Levi Strauss Foundation for their support of the podcast and the work SNMA is doing. We appreciate y'all. So big shout out. Now let's get back to the show. During each episode, we like to acknowledge SNMA and maps chapters doing great work.
00:39:45
Speaker
This month, we want to shout out the University of California Irvine SNMA chapter. Throughout the summer, they have been hosting virtual sessions about the medical school application process for underrepresented minority pre-medical students. They've discussed everything from admissions to secondaries, and most recently preparing for a virtual interview season. Shout out to UC Irvine SNMA for all of the work they're doing. You can find that on Instagram at UCISNMA.
00:40:13
Speaker
If you know of an SNMA or MAPS chapter doing great work, let us know. Send us an email at podcast at snma.org so we can acknowledge them on the show. All right, y'all. It's time for our listener letters this week.
Listener Engagement and Feedback
00:40:32
Speaker
So are you guys ready? Cause I'm about to read them out for you. We read it. All right, guys. All right. So our first one is.
00:40:41
Speaker
from Kyla Danielle. She said, just wanted to let you all know that I'm loving this podcast. It's been relatable and informative, but also has me laughing, which is a great balance for these quarantine days. Having candid conversations about everything that's happening in the world is so important, but you all have done it in a way that makes me want to continue tuning in and listening. I have definitely subscribed and I'm extremely excited for what's to come next. If possible, I'd love to hear more conversations about the integration between medicine and public health.
00:41:09
Speaker
like you all have reference with minorities, increased susceptibility to being affected by COVID, police brutality, et cetera. Keep up the great work. What y'all think? Thank you. Yeah, thank you, Kyla. I love that people are, like these letters aren't fluff, right? Like you can tell that people are actually listening, listening. That's how you know it's real when you say it twice.
00:41:36
Speaker
The fact that she subscribed means everything because we are on all of the major podcasting, what are they called? Platforms. Thank you. We are on all of the major platforms.
00:41:53
Speaker
For regards to what she's looking forward to, I think we will continue on, especially because we're in such a sensitive time right now where I think we all feel so attacked.
00:42:08
Speaker
that we're not going to stop the conversation. Like we are the generation that was spoken of that's going to continue to push the narrative. So Hilah, we will come through with everything that you've requested and then some. So thank you for writing in.
00:42:25
Speaker
Yeah, Kyla, we appreciate your words and encouragement. We do this for ya. The energy you bring forth is important to us, and hearing your words and hearing your thoughts inspires us to continue to propel the mission of SNMA and propel the mission of working in our communities. And as you mentioned, talking about public service, we as physicians, future physicians, it is our duty
00:42:47
Speaker
and our commitment to work in underserved communities and work in the public domain and help to inspire the next generation of physicians. So we do look forward to creating more dialogue and discussion with that in the future. So love you, appreciate you, continue to listen, make sure you share it with your peoples too, because we're out here making it.
00:43:06
Speaker
Yes, thank you, Kyla. And I want to plug in really quick. She did mention we talked about being affected by COVID and actually both of our episodes, the first and the second. And we did, if you guys aren't aware, to our listeners, we did have an interview with Dr. Maybank where we talked about COVID. One of the podcast team members did do the interview. So yeah, be sure to listen to that too, because that was a very important conversation. So once again, thank you, Kyla.
00:43:35
Speaker
DeAndre, the heart of the show. We love him. Okay, guys, so this is our second listener letter. This came from a very proud parent of one of the podcasters.
00:43:50
Speaker
They said, it warms my heart to see Black medical students taking on this task, informing the public of what's occurring in the world of medicine as it affects our people and our culture. I truly enjoy the shows. They're quite informative, and I've already learned a tremendous amount of information about the pandemic, politics, and an array of other topics continue the great work for all you doctors to be. So basically, she was basically just giving us a lot of love, you know, just telling us that what we're doing is amazing.
00:44:17
Speaker
Thank you, Mama. It ain't my Mama, though, but I ain't snitching whose Mama it is. But I'm gonna call you Mama for all intents and purposes. We appreciate you listening and listening in. The fact of the matter is, it's beautiful that we have a wide range and diverse group of people checking on this podcast and that we're able to educate you on so many things on this platform. So we love you, appreciate you. And we look forward to hearing more of your listening letters coming through and showing support.
00:44:43
Speaker
Yeah. So whoever's mama, this is the support that is always shown from our parents is heartwarming. And it's what gets us through and pushes us towards projects that we never even thought we could be a part of. And the fact that
00:45:05
Speaker
that the adults are learning. When you have an elder tell them that in school, that's big. Don't call an elder, she's young. Don't call an elder. The elders, you know, listen, if anybody's a mama to me or to you or to Isabella, they're an elder. They got us in this world. They pushed us through. The elders are learning from us.
00:45:30
Speaker
And that's what we're here to do. We're here to educate and inform the masses, not just of our age group, of all age groups. So we thank you parents, everyone's parents, for listening in. And we love you very much. We love it, y'all. But those were all our listener letters. So once again, make sure you guys, to all of the individuals listening, send in your listener letters because we want to hear from you guys. We want to know what's happening. And yeah, we'll see you guys next episode with more listener letters.
Meditation and Wellness
00:45:58
Speaker
Here in the lounge, we want to make sure that everyone is prioritizing their mental health. These are stressful times. And we want to make sure that you all are taking care of yourselves. So we have simple ways to incorporate wellness into your busy schedules. Today, we'll be focusing on meditation through a body scan. You can find guided body scans on the internet that can help guide you through this practice of focusing on different sensations.
00:46:24
Speaker
Start from your toes and work your way up or from the crown of your head, working your way down. Be deliberate and intentional, bringing your attention to how the surface of the skin feels, how the joints feel, how the muscles feel. Pay attention to each and every sensation, heaviness, tingling, warmth.
00:46:45
Speaker
the feelings may be uncomfortable. Sore feet from a long day of work or achy muscles from a workout, try to dissociate good or bad from them. And remember, if your mind wanders, give yourself grace and come right back to where you left off on the body. Thank you, lounges, for tuning in to this session of wellness and meditation. Tune in for our next episode. We got more jam packed for y'all. Thanks so much for joining us for this episode of The Lounge.
00:47:15
Speaker
Let us know your thoughts about the discussion we had today by emailing us at podcast at SNMA.org. Be sure to follow the SNMA on social media to stay up to date on upcoming events like the September National Leadership Institute, which is being held virtually on September 18th and 19th. Established in 2003, the Leadership Institute
00:47:40
Speaker
provides an opportunity for intensive leadership development. With the aim to develop the professional and organizational leadership skills of the SNMA membership, the Institute will focus on leadership in the time of crisis. You can look forward to discussions about honing leadership skills, marketing yourself professionally, how to share your story through your CV,
00:48:06
Speaker
and hearing from thought-provoking leaders who have successfully navigated through crises. All members are invited to participate in this training opportunity.
00:48:17
Speaker
SMA is pleased to announce our first virtual residency fair on September 10th and September 12th. This is an opportunity to interact with participating residency programs who are interested in connecting with you about their opportunities. This program is designed for fourth year medical students from groups underrepresented in medicine.
00:48:37
Speaker
Meet individuals and affiliated residency program directors, attending physicians, fellows, and residents, and learn more about the hospitals and individual residency programs offered at their hospitals. So check it out, tune in, make sure y'all elaborate and connect with all these residency directors. It's going to be a great time. And don't forget to vote, y'all. Come on. With all the craziness going on, y'all have to vote. So please go out and vote, whether it's an absentee ballot or go into the polls.
00:49:07
Speaker
But once again, thank you all so much for listening and we will see you next episode.