The next class of third-year medical students from the University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine (UNE COM) has joined us at Southern New Hampshire Health. All of them have ties to New England, and three of them were born at SNHH! This is the fourth class of third-year students SNHH has had the privilege to host from UNE COM.
As is usual, the students will complete eight six-week clinical rotations, including Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, Surgery, OB/GYN, Pediatrics, Psychiatry, and Community Health. However, their learning will take place in the setting of the COVID-19 pandemic, which means extra precautions and the quickly emerging presence of telemedicine.
When asked about starting out in medicine during this challenging time, here is what two of the students had to say:
“I think that entering into health care during COVID-19 is going to present significant challenges to the learning environment, but that it will also force us to learn a lot more about the health care delivery system and its weaknesses and strengths and how it can be improved going forward,” Matthew Gott, a third-year medical student, explains.
Elisabeth Ekman, another third-year medical student, agrees that these are interesting times. “Entering health care right now in a clinical setting, I’m looking at it as an opportunity to be involved in an era that has so much, with so many opportunities for creativity and problem-solving. As tragic as the pandemic has been, it’s really shifted the way that we can offer health care to people—with telemedicine becoming such a big way in which we are delivering health care during this time,” she says.
Please give them a warm welcome!
Front row (left to right)
Matt Gott-originally from Milford, NH now living in Portsmouth, NH
Elisabeth Ekman (Libby) – Andover, MA
Olivia Patsos -Concord, MA
Madeleine Whitaker (Maddie) – Hollis, NH
Back row (left to right)
Mike Doyle – Cape Cod, MA
Evan Devanny- Concord, NH
Tom Oram – Marlborough, MA
Jeremy Garneau – Haverhill, MA
