Megan Haughton
Interviewee: Megan Haughton
Interviewer: Crystal Bauer
Date: October 17, 2020
Topic: COVID-19
“I really felt useful because I was at a small rural community hospital,” says Megan Haughton, a fourth year medical student at Pacific Northwest University in Yakima, Washington. “There was just a lot of work to do.” This situation changed from April through July when she spent 17 weeks completing classes online. She continues, “It was weird to not get hands-on patient experience during that time.”
Today, she is preparing to spend two months in Idaho completing two sets of audition rotations for four weeks. She has just completed four weeks in Washington. At the same time, she is ready to complete an online application for a three-year residency program in family medicine. COVID-19 has also changed this process. Haughton now joins a growing number of medical students who can be more selective without having to actually travel to each location for an in-person interview. In addition, virtual residency fairs have also made the process much easier.
When asked what skills she thought family doctors needed to help their patients fight the pandemic, she quickly replied, “To listen and to remain a calm voice giving them facts and statistics. Use a whole-person approach by supporting them emotionally and physically. Ask questions with kindness and curiosity rather than judgment knowing that some of them may have a lot of anxiety.”