Med Students With Ties To St. Barnabas Recall Year 1 Of Pandemic

LIVINGSTON, NJ — It was a trial by fire for Elizabeth Ginalis and Timothy Amin.

As the coronavirus pandemic worsened last spring and emergency rooms struggled to respond, more than 1,000 medical, nursing and pharmacy school students with Rutgers University joined the front-line of the battle against the virus.

The health care workers had been training at hospitals across North Jersey, including Saint Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston. But in an attempt to keep the state’s most crucial care facilities running, they were allowed to graduate early.

A year later, several of them reflected on their experience, including Ginalis and Amin, both of whom have ties to Saint Barnabas.

The following passages come via Rutgers University. Read the full article here.

Elizabeth Ginalis

Elizabeth Ginalis graduated in May from Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. She is now a neurosurgery resident at RBHS, training at University Hospital in Newark, Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick and Saint Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston.

“Graduating into the pandemic brought a mix of emotions. I was excited to start training in medicine and making a difference, but also nervous. I had concerns about my patients’, parents’ and co-residents’ safety. Those concerns were quickly overcome by the resources the hospitals had ready to protect us.

“A large part of my job is treating critical patients, not all of whom have COVID, especially as University Hospital and Robert Wood Johnson are level 1 trauma centers. These patients require the same urgent management regardless of COVID status. In that way, my training hasn’t changed. I’m not thinking, ‘When will the COVID test come back?’ but ‘How fast can I get the patient to the OR?’ or ‘How fast can I get an EVD (external ventricular drain) in to relieve excessive fluid in the brain?’

“There are certainly challenges with treating COVID-positive neurosurgical patients. They need to be seen hourly especially if they have a neurological issue managed in the NeuroICU. But to be able to see patients improve despite having COVID and its associating risks has been very rewarding.

“For all that we’ve been through, I tell my family and friends that I know this is the right field for me. The work can be exhausting, and hours are long, but it is so much more manageable when you’re doing the job that you love, and when making a difference makes you feel so rewarded.”

Timothy Amin

Timothy Amin graduated in May from Rutgers Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy, one of the group of students who graduated early and received emergency pharmacist licenses, before taking their board exams, from the state of New Jersey. He is now a pharmacy resident at Saint Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston.

“Our hospital is one of the largest transplant centers in the nation, but people were not coming in to get elective transplants. Instead, our clinical specialists and other resources were redeployed to the ICU and other units to help with the significant volume of patients with COVID.

“Pharmacy residents join the hospital rounding teams to optimize the medications needed to treat each patient. We’ve seen higher rates of patients with extremely critical conditions, including acute respiratory distress syndrome, needing much higher doses of medication.

“The historic nature of this disease creates an incredibly daunting task: New data about COVID and treatments is coming out every day. You have to stay on your toes and be cognizant of all of these new findings. You have to accept that we don’t know what the best therapy is for these patients. It can be very frustrating and demoralizing to see patients acutely worsen, but on the other hand it’s very rewarding when after all of these months we see tested approaches begin to turn patients around.

“We deal with the stress by relying on our teammates. By putting each patient at the forefront and removing all of the biases affiliated with COVID and its implications, while using the best evidence-based approaches, teamwork and interdisciplinary collaboration with nurses, physicians and other practitioners for the betterment of the patient.”

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