Episode 5 - A Physician on Food Stamps
(00:15)
Hello, hello, and welcome to the Emotional Millennial. My name is Annie, and I'm so excited that you're here with me today. I have gone through an immense amount of personal growth throughout the past year, and I'm no longer not talking about it. Our world needs more authenticity, honesty, vulnerability. And with this podcast, I am simply doing my part.
(00:36)
I want to take the time today to talk about how I spent my year off. I guess you could call it when I didn't have a job as a physician, being an unemployed physician, an unlicensed physician. What can you do with this time that you don't have a job for this entire year? So you didn't match, you didn't soap into a position, and right now you're an unemployed physician, an unlicensed physician. So you have a degree, you're a doctor, but there's seriously nothing you can do with it, which is pretty crazy if you think about it.
(01:22)
But it's the reality for a lot of people right now in this moment. I actually read a statistic on Twitter yesterday. I believe it was that there are 100 people in this exact position right now. So if you are one of those people in this position, please know that you are not alone. I know it might feel like you're very alone because a lot of people do not talk about it because there is so much shame associated with being an unemployed physician.
(01:58)
But I'm here. I'm trying to break that stigma. I'm trying to shed some light on what you can do during this year off. I like to refer to it as my gap year because I didn't get a gap year between well, I chose not to take a gap year between undergrad and medical school. So my gap year just came a little bit late between medical school and residency.
(02:22)
So some things you have to start thinking about, how are you going to make some money? Because if you're anything like me, you have over $250,000 in debt at the moment. And so taking out more loans probably just is not in your best interest. In addition to making money, how are you going to have health insurance during this time? So some logistical things.
(02:45)
Then what I did during my year off, what I thought was very productive and helpful for me and what I enjoyed during the year off, and then also approaching feedback and getting feedback from your first round of your eras applications and your first round of interviews, because that is also extremely, extremely important. That's how you can improve your application for next year when you reapply. So let's get the boring stuff out of the way first. I highly recommend applying for food stamps and applying for Medicaid. I know that every single state has, like, different policies, but I'm currently on food stamps and I currently have Medicaid.
(03:25)
And I applied as early as possible because I knew that I wouldn't have coverage once I graduated from medical school. So I highly recommend both of those things, and they have both been immensely helpful for me. I tried to see not matching as an opportunity to rediscover who I am and what I really want and what I wanted my future career to look like. So for me, the first time around, I applied OBGYN, and the second time around, I applied family medicine, and I just matched into a family medicine program. And I'm so, so excited about that.
(04:05)
I'll tell that story on another episode. But after I didn't match into OBGYN, I reached out to all of my letter writers, and I obviously thanked them for writing me letters. And then I gave them the news that I Unfortunately did not match. And they were extremely supportive of me. And I actually met with a couple of them to kind of figure out, okay, what should my next steps be?
(04:30)
What do you guys think about my situation? I really love to learn. And so for a while, I was considering obtaining another degree. I love to be working towards something and to challenge myself. So an Mph or a master's in public health sounded like something that really interested me, especially because there are a lot of online programs.
(04:50)
So I can literally just sit at home, learn, get another degree, and then I can tell the people on my erase application. This is what I did with my past year, because you have to have a story of what you did during your year off. You can't just be like, oh, I just sat at home and played video games all the time, which in reality, I spent a lot of time doing that. But you need to have something to say about what you did during your year off. After I touched base with all of my mentors, trying to figure out what it is that I should do.
(05:22)
One of my mentors is absolutely incredible, and I worked with this individual during my third year. I did actually. It was during my fourth year. I did, in a way, elective, but it was all virtual. So I've actually never met this position in real life, which is so crazy to think about.
(05:42)
But this person actually hired me as a research assistant for this entire year, working part time through utilizing some of their grant funds, which, I mean, professional relationships are what matters so much. And because of this good professional relationship that I created with this individual, they were willing to do that for me. And I will be forever grateful to this person. So I had the opportunity to spend my year earning a little bit of money and continuing to work with this person and getting some more research experience under my belt. Once I decided to switch to family medicine, I met with the clerkship director from my family medicine clerkship during my third year.
(06:33)
She was like, oh, actually, there's a free clinic that is kind of nearby that would probably really love to have some assistance from someone as educated as yourself to help out at the clinic. And I was like, yes, I would love to do that. That sounds great. And so I reached out to the free clinic, and I have spent every single Monday scribing for a physician at the free clinic where I was basically able to act as a resident, and that was the best experience I could have ever asked for. That was the first time that I had the opportunity to work with an underserved population, and that just totally allowed me to see this passion that I have for working with that population.
(07:21)
And so I'm really grateful that I was able to do that as well. I also learned so much about how to take care of individuals when you don't have the funds. So we had to get really creative with solutions and different ways that we could help the community without having any money. And that was just a really beautiful thing to be a part of. With that connection that I made at the free clinic, I worked with the same physician every single Monday for the same shift.
(07:51)
And that physician was then able to know me well enough to write me a strong letter for my next round of eras applications. And so that was another, like, check box for me for my next round of applications. So I had the research position. I had the scribing at the clinic, and I knew the last thing that I really wanted to incorporate into my life was teaching. Teaching is something I am so incredibly passionate about.
(08:20)
I love to teach, I love to mentor, and I love to work oneonone with people to help them realize their full potential. So then through talking with more people about, I want to teach, but I don't know how to do this. Do people in medical school get tutored? I don't know. I ended up creating an account on Yzand.
(08:42)
I had never heard of it before until one of my friends told me about it. It's W-Y-Z-A-N-T. Create an account on there. And I ended up tutoring a couple students on Wizant. I had two medical students.
(08:57)
One was in Arizona, one was in California. How crazy and cool is that? Welcome to 2022. I don't know. They were both first year, and I was really helping them with anatomy for the most part.
(09:09)
So I taught these two students online through Wise aunt. I initially was charging $45 an hour, and Wise Aunt takes a portion of that, and then I increase my rate to $50 an hour. And then after, like, the Christmas break, those students dropped off, and I actually reconnected with a couple other students personally through, like, personal connections. And so I just I have one student I meet with, like, three times a week, and the other student I meet with two to three times a week, so pretty consistently for both of them, and they will just end up Venmoing me for $50 an hour. I meet with one of them in person and I meet with the other one over my Zoom personal, like meeting room or whatever.
(09:57)
And I can use the screen to annotate and I get to dig into my old notes from medical school and teach through that. And I really love it. And I highly recommend doing something along these lines. If you do enjoy teaching as well, then I guess the final thing that I really tried to focus on doing throughout the year from a professional standpoint building my application standpoint was tying up loose ends on a couple of research projects. So I finished writing a paper about covet outcomes and high dose IV vitamin C.
(10:37)
Super exciting stuff, I know. Finished up writing that paper and it got accepted and published. So that was another thing I could add to my CV for the year. And other than that, I just let myself chill out. I have not spent so much time on the couch in my entire life and let me tell you, it's like the most beautiful thing you could imagine.
(11:01)
At first I was feeling like, just so unsettled, generally speaking, because I've spent my whole life, like, work, work, work, work, doing so much. And so when I'm sitting there doing nothing, I didn't know how to relax. Honestly, it took me quite some time to just be comfortable with the fact of just sitting there and doing whatever it was that I wanted. I got super into Stardew Valley. Love that game.
(11:27)
I played a lot of like, balloons and stuff, watched a bunch of reality TV, which I'm still doing to this day. I'm currently on like, a Survivor kick. I don't know. I've never watched Survivor in my life and right now I am obsessed with it. I can't stop watching it.
(11:42)
I also planned some trips. My boyfriend and I went on like a two week road trip where we went to Antelope Canyon Zion, Grand Titan National Park. And it was just the best two weeks of my life, I swear, just to get out into the world, reimmerse myself in nature, and just re ground myself, really, and gain new perspective on my life and my future moving forward. So the last thing I want to talk about is how I went about obtaining feedback from my first round of my egrass application. First thing I did was set up a couple of meetings with program directors of places that I interviewed at and that allowed me to gain some insight into, honestly, my application from their standpoint because we turn in an application, right?
(12:38)
But we don't get to see what our letters say. We don't see how our application compares to everyone else's. And so it was really important for me to see what their perspective was on my application. Overall, it was particularly important to me that I asked about my letters and if they were strong or not, because I'm going to have to get letters again next year. So then I can know, like, do I need to ask new people?
(13:07)
I know that that's something that can happen to people. Like, you think you have a really strong letter writer. And then it turns out that maybe they didn't say the best things about you in your letter. So I asked about that. Turns out all my letters were fine.
(13:20)
Blah, blah, blah, whatever. I also emailed. I sent so many emails. Oh, my goodness. But I emailed all of the places that rejected me.
(13:30)
I emailed the coordinator and CC, the program director, and was like, hey, I didn't match. I'm asking for any and all feedback. I tried to do that as soon as possible, like, after the match process. I think I got a couple responses, but I mean, it's better than nothing. I just wanted to see if they had any insight for me.
(13:52)
And honestly, they didn't really have much to say. So I don't know how good or bad that was for me, but it was worth a shot to see what those people had to say. I also met with my advisor that was through my medical school who kind of helped me through the process to see if there were pieces of my application that she felt should be stronger or things that like, maybe I shouldn't highlight about myself all that kind of jazz. And then the final thing I did was I actually hired someone to be my advisor for the next round of matching process. And there are quite a few companies that do this online, and they're, like, pretty expensive.
(14:40)
I don't know. To be honest, I was desperate because in my mind, I'm like, clearly I can't do this on my own. Clearly I did something wrong, and I refuse to let this happen again. I need a job. I need to get a job next year.
(14:55)
This cannot be my reality. So if I have to hire someone and spend a couple of $1,000 to make sure that I match, I'm going to do it. So I did that. The company that I hired was hard to pronounce the first word, but it's like Shemesianacademics S-H-E-M-M. I'll write some of this stuff in the show notes, if that's helpful, because I can't exactly remember how to spell it at the moment.
(15:24)
They were super nice, and I set up a call with them at first to see how I fit with their company. And if I liked the services that they offered, then they have you fill out something about yourself and what you want out of this partnership in working with them, and then they'll pair you up with an advisor who's going to work with you throughout the year. So this advisor was really helpful for me in figuring out not only what I wanted my application to look like but also how I was going to spend my year off and making those decisions about volunteering, about doing research, all that kind of stuff. It was really nice to feel like I had a partner who every decision I was making about my future career because I didn't feel very level headed at the moment. I felt emotional, you know, I was super depressed and it was hard to see things clearly and so this person kind of acted as my level headed adviser who was able to guide me in a good direction moving forward for my career.
(16:34)
I feel like I were vomited a lot here and I apologize for that. There's so many moving parts and that year was so long a lot happened and so if you have any questions or if there's anything else you want me to touch on more in depth about that year please let me know. Reach out the emotional millennial@gmail.com transcripts are available on my website and yeah I hope you enjoyed this episode once again. I'm sorry if it was just a lot of word vomiting I have a lot of thoughts. I'm getting better behind the microphone but obviously I'm not perfect so thank you so much for taking the time today to be here with me and listen I hope this helps you if you didn't match if you are not employed you will get a job you will become an incredible position one day and this setback is only going to make you stronger in the long run I promise you and I'm here for you if you need something if you need advice about your situation seriously reach out.
(17:43)
I got you. Okay. Have a great rest of your day. Bye.