PANDEMIC
I STUDENT PERSPECTIVES
Jie Jane Chen
complete medical school and planning for the coming months, you can become a bit disoriented if all those plans come to a screeching halt. Yet, if you “learn to lean in,” says fourthyear medical student Jie Jane Chen, you can embrace the challenges and grow. For Chen, gratitude and connection are key. “I am thankful for many people in my life who are sources of encouragement and strength,” says this California native, “and for the opportunities to stay in touch despite being physically apart.” 28
HARVARD MEDICINE | SPRIN G 2020
Chen began to see the effects of the pandemic on her family and patients months ago. In January, word from concerned family members led her father to cancel a planned visit to China. In February, when Chen was in Madrid doing a gastroenterology rotation at Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón, which is affiliated with Universidad Complutense de Madrid, the first case of the novel coronavirus emerged in Barcelona. Soon her hospital implemented additional precautions. By mid-March, her psychosocial oncology and palliative care rotation at Brigham and Women’s
YE GRACE CHEN; JONDO LOPEZ-CARILLO (OPPOSITE)
WHEN YOU’RE PREPARING to
Hospital/Dana-Farber Cancer Institute had gone virtual. “It’s heartbreaking to see how the new rules limiting visitors in hospitals and hospice facilities affect patients and health care teams,” says Chen. She chose to focus on providing assistance to those on health care’s frontlines who need child care or other support and on counseling patients with COVID-19 symptoms about home care. Fostering such connections fits right into Chen’s interests in improving the quality of patient care and strengthening community among medical professionals. Before the American Radium Society’s conference was postponed, for example, she had planned to present her findings on patient-provider communication and decision-making, along with patterns of palliative care among patients receiving palliative radiotherapy. Three years earlier, she cofounded Weave, a novel tool for connecting students and faculty interested in developing mentoring relationships. It won the School’s 2019 Program Award for a Culture of Excellence in Mentoring and the 2019 Dean’s Innovation Award in Diversity and Inclusion. Now Chen is poised to meld her interests in clinical research and education with work as an academic radiation oncologist. Before coming to HMS, she coordinated clinical trials in the Stanford Cancer Institute’s Department of Radiation Oncology; in March, she matched in radiation oncology at the University of California, San Francisco. Meanwhile, she’s reflecting on her role in medicine and the ongoing pandemic as a soon-to-be intern. “I’m now trying to lean into everything as it happens, to be a source of emotional support for people, and to build community and resilience where I can.” —Ann Marie Menting
